Fooled Around and Fell in Love
by pepperlandgrl
Summary: Azaria and Rocket have been friends for as long as they can remember. Now after being caught by Nova Corps, they meet some new people and end up having to work together with their new friends to save the entire galaxy while maybe discovering some hidden feelings.
1. Chapter 1

She ran. She ran down the long white hallway of the large laboratory. She didn't really have a plan as to what to do after pulling the fire alarm but she only had one thing she knew had to do. She had to help the poor small animal that her horrible father had taken to use in one of his experiments. He always told her "It's for science. It's for a good cause" but she never believed him. Anger boiled inside of her, her dark purple hair becoming a bright fiery color, as she taught of him. She hated him. With all her might, she hated him.

The girl slid to a stop at the room she was looking for. **OPERATION ROOM** the sign on the door read in bold red letters.

Her hands pushed open the door, the alarm screeching behind her. She peaked her head inside and her bright purple eyes scanned the large grey room, looking for the small creature.

She lets out a tiny gasp as her eyes finally catch the small raccoon (she had heard her father call it that) and she ran over to the long table, the door closing behind her with a bang. The girl looked down and her features softened. The small animal was asleep or probably knocked out by her father's drugs. She felt her eyes narrow as she saw the metal plate drilled into the back of the raccoon but her heart melted at the sight of its small face, looking so peaceful asleep. She softly picked it up, wrapping one of the towels on the table next to her around the raccoon and quickly left the cold empty room.

The air outside was cool on her pale light pink skin. With her arms wrapped tightly around the small animal, she tiredly walked along the sidewalk, the sky dark and full of stars.

She had been walking for what felt like hours, her feet sore and screaming for a break. Her eyes were half closed, tired as well and her brain practically begged for sleep.

She finally caved and she stopped, sitting down on the damp grass. Her arms ached but she couldn't will herself to let go of the raccoon. As her eyes began to droop down, she felt the bundle in her arms move. Her eyes shot open and she quickly but softly laid the small animal down onto the ground. The girl unwrapped the towel from the animal, watching in wonder as it slowly stretched, yawned, and opened its eyes as the girl made eyes contact with the small brown pools. Fear flashed in them and the raccoon began to back away.

The girl reacted quickly though and whispered softly "Wait! Wait! Don't go! I'm not gonna hurt you. Trust me I won't."

The small animal seemed to look hesitant at first but slowly relaxed and sat down though still away from the girl.

They sat there in silence until the girl spoke up. "Um… my name is Azaria. Do you um, have a name?"

The raccoon looked up at her and shook its head. The girl's eyes widened and she gasped, "You can understand me?!" She looked at the raccoon as it nodded in response. "Can… can you talk?"

The animal next to her didn't answer her immediately but after a few minutes, the raccoon responded. "Yes."

The voice that came out was soft and light, like the voice of a young boy. Azaria stared at it in wonder never having seen something like this before.

"Wow. Well, then I guess you'll need a name now right?" Azaria asked it.

"I guess." The raccoon replied quietly, still looking slightly scared.

Azaria smiled. "Okay. Ummm….. your name can be…. Rocket!" she exclaimed. "Yeah. Rocket. That sounds cool."

Despite still wary of the young girl next to him, the raccoon smiled at the sound of his new name. "Rocket." He whispered to himself. He liked the sound of it. She was right. It was cool.

The two sat there, the only light on them came from the stars and moons in the dark sky. Rocket glances over to Azaria next to him and says, "That was your dad, wasn't he? The one who helped make me, I mean."

Azaria stiffens and looked rather uncomfortable. "Yes. Yes he was."

"Was?" Rocket asks

"Yeah. Was. I hate him." Azaria's face contorted in anger and her hair once again began to glow slightly. "I hate him so much. He never wanted me. He wanted a boy. He's one of those people who think men are smarter than women so he never really loved or even cared about me. The only one I had was my mom. She was everything to me." Azaria's face then went from anger to one of a saddened expression, her hair going back to its original color. "Then when I was 5, my mom began to get really sick. I didn't know why or of what but, me being so little, I did my best to just be there with her. She died on my 6th birthday. It turned out my dad had been using her in his experiments. He knew he was slowly killing her but… but he didn't even think of stopping." Tears were running down her face now while the only thing Rocket could think of doing was stare in sympathy. "I'm 9 now and I still hate him as much as I did then." She finished.

Rocket looked down at the grass at his feet. "How come you saved me?"

Azaria wiped away at her eyes and looked down at him. "I could hear you scream all the way from my room. You sounded like you were in so much pain. I couldn't take it so I got you out, I came along 'cause I didn't want to live there anymore."

Rocket nods, now fully trusting the young girl. She wasn't like her father, like the other scientists. She had been through so much; he had no reason _not_ to trust her. She risked her own life to save his. It was the least he could do. He gave Azaria one more quick glance, noticing her eyes were still a little watery, and climbed up on her lap, curling up under her arms.

Azaria stared in surprise, seeing her new friend finally warm up to her and trust her. She smiled and slowly laid back down, Rocket curling up in her arms, head buried in her chest. Azaria slowly closed her eyes, not being able to hold them open any longer; finally happy to be away from the small hell she was forced to live in, finally happy to be free.

* * *

**18 years later….**

"Xandarians. What a bunch of losers. All of them in a big hurry to get from somethin' stupid to nothing at all. Pathetic." Rocket said from a water fountain, his criminal scanner in hand as he looked around the large area full of people. This was how he mostly found criminals to get bounties on. He found them and Groot and Azaria would get them, he would just shoot them to knock them out and for the fun of it.

He also liked to make fun of people who caught his attention. Spotting a man with short blond hair he says, "Look at this guy! Can you believe they call us criminals, when he's assaulting us with that haircut?"

Hearing Rocket say this, Azaria burst out laughing while Rocket continued to scan other people.

Rocket continues when he sees a small child getting help to walk. "What is this thing?Look how it thinks it's so cool. It's not cool to get help! Walk by yourself, you little gargoyle!" He then turns to an old man talking to a pretty young woman as Azaria continues to laugh. "Look at Mr. Smiles over here. Where's your wife, old man? What a class-A pervert."

He loved to make to Azaria laugh. He loved the sound it made, the way her eyes would light up, the way her mouth would curve into a beautiful smile when she stopped. He laughed along with her and turned to his other partner, Groot, a tall talking tree. "Right, Groot? Groot?"

When he didn't answer, Rocket frowned and looked over to him. He found him drinking from the water fountain.

"Don't drink water fountain, you idiot. That's disgusting!"

Groot looked over to Rocket, trying to look innocent and shook his head.

"Yes, you did. I just saw you doing it. Why are you lying?" Rocket said, looking annoyed.

"Oh leave him alone. Don't worry about it. I mean he is a tree, what do expect. He's just thirsty." Azaria tells Rocket, through her giggling.

Rocket goes back to looking at his scanner and catches a man talking to a girl who looked really pissed. When he aims the screen to the man, the screen begins beeping, telling him the man was indeed a human.

"Whoop. Looks like we got one. Okay, humie, how bad does someone wanna find you?" Rocket mutters mostly to himself but his words get Azaria's attention and she stops laughing, her curiosity now captured.

Rocket looks at the screen of his scanner and his eyes widen. "Forty-thousand units?! Whoa!"

"What?! Crap, that's a lot of money!" Azaria says now excited to go get this guy, happy for some action.

Rocket grins "Yeah, it is. Groot, we're gonna be rich!" Rocket says turning to Groot who was once again not paying attention and drinking water from the fountain.

Rocket frowns and groans, shaking his head. Azaria giggles and gets up and stretches, her shirt rising up bit. She turns back to Rocket who was staring at her with a strange glint in his eyes. Her head cocks to the right in confusion.

"What's wrong?" she asks him. The question seemed to snap him out of the daze he was in and the glint in his eyes disappeared as he quickly fumbled with the scanner in his hands.

"Wha? Oh, nothing, nothing." He quickly said. Azaria stared at him; confused by the way he acted but brushed it off. She walked over to Groot and tapped his arm.

"Come on Groot. We gotta go. Rocket found someone with a huge bounty." She said. Groot nodded and stood up straight as Rocket walked over to them his gun on his shoulder while Azaria took out hers.

But as the small group walked over to their new catch, it turned out someone else wanted him too.

The human was fighting with a woman with green skin. "What do we do?" Azaria said to Rocket

"Don't worry. I got a plan." he answered. The woman seemed to be winning too and looked like she was about to stab him, knife in the air.

"Danm it, come on." Rocket quickly muttered as he ran over to her.

"Wait! What was the plan?!" Azaria screams after him. She groans in frustration. "Here Groot take this." Azaria hands him a large brown bag and takes out her blaster, running after her friend.

Rocket tackles the woman just as she was going to lower her knife and knocks her down. He looks over to Groot, who stood next to him holding the brown bag.

Referring to the human, he screams "Put him in the bag! Put him in the bag!"

Groot begins extending the roots on his hands and reaches for the green woman instead. Rocket growls angrily and looks over to him, struggling with the woman. "No! Not her, him! Learn genders, man."

While struggling to break free, the woman tries to bite Rocket in order for him to let go.

"Biting? That's not fair!" Rocket whines. "Take it easy!"

The woman began to get frustrated when she saw the human grab the grey orb that was on the ground and run off with it. She finally manages to escape, throwing Rocket aside, Rocket flying off the walkway and landing face first on a glass panel, and running after the human. She picks up a piece of metal and throws it at him, making him drop the orb.

"You alright?" Azaria asks while holding in a chuckle from seeing Rocket fall as she jumped from the walkway, landing on her feet and helping him get up, handing him his gun.

Rocket glares at her, "Don't you dare laugh. It was _not _funny."

"Ok, ok. Sorry. But, uh, who is this chick anyway?"

"I recognize her. She works for Ronan. Her name is Gamora." he says, wincing slightly as he straightens up.

"That must be why she's after that orb. Ronan must want it." Azaria says.

"Yeah." he looks over to see the other two still fighting. He smirks when he sees the human put a small rocket launcher onto Gamora's leg and sending her flying.

"Alright, Groot, get him!" Rocket orders to Groot who walks over to the man while he was distracted and places the bag over his head.

"What the-" the man just has enough time to say after Groot starts carrying him over his shoulder.

The trio begins walking away, Rocket looking back at Groot and noticing him smiling "Quit smiling, you idiot. You're supposed to be a professional."

Azaria giggles but there victory was short lived as she sees Gamora running over to them and nudges Rocket next to her.

"You gotta be kidding me." he groans, but gets pushed aside and attacks Groot instead. "Hey!"

Gamora ends up cutting off both of Groot's arms and Azaria lifts up her blaster, aiming at her but just as she was about to pull the trigger, Gamora opens the bag and gets electrocuted by the human's gun.

"Oh this is going nowhere." Azaria moaned and lowers her gun but notices the man running off and raises it again, now smiling.

She takes a few seconds to get her aim and muttered under her breath "I live for the simple things. Like how much this is going to hurt." and pulled the trigger to her blaster, a small ball of electricity shooting out of it, the ball hitting her target and giving him a powerful electric shock.

"Yeah. Writhe, little man." Azaria says chuckling. Rocket walks over to her, looking disappointed.

"I wanted to shoot him. No fair." he mumbles.

Azaria smiles, her hands on her hips. "What do mean 'no fair'? You got to shoot the guy on our last job. It was my turn."

"Whatever." he says with a huff. Groot walks over to the two of them whimpering, looking at his arms. Rocket looks over to him "It'll grow back, you D'ast idiot. Quit whining."

But right before they could do anything else, they hear, "Subject 89P13, drop your weapon!"

The Nova Corps.

They were all frozen by suspension beams from the Nova officers' ships and Azaria turned to Rocket as she heard him mumble "Oh crap…" and reluctantly drops his gun.

_Oh well… _Azaria thought letting out a huff of air. _Here we go again._

* * *

**Hey! So I'm still alive. Yeah sorry for such a long time of being away but I'm back and as you can see with a new story. Guardians of the Galaxy! :D I love this movie and I just fell in love with Rocket the first time I saw him so this is going to be the story I will be working on for the next few weeks give or take and I will see you all in the next chapter! Reviews will be greatly appreciated if you can. Bye! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey! Here's the new chapter and just so you guys know, I might update new chapters maybe every Wednesdays or Fridays because of my schedule. Anyways, enjoy the new chapter and please don't be shy to review! Reviews = love! **

***I don't own any of these characters, only my OC Azaria. I wish did. Especially Rocket and Groot. They are just adorable! :D ***

* * *

The ride to Kyln Prison was very long. All Azaria wanted was to get there, get out and turn in the man across from her for the bounty. She knew it wasn't going to be hard to get out of the prison but she really didn't want to go through all the boring procedures again.

The feeling of something on her lap took her out of her thoughts. She looked down and saw Rocket had laid his head down onto her lap and was staring up at her a small smile on his face.

"Watcha thinking about?" he asked her

"Oh just how _boring_ it's going to be to have to go through prison procedures again and how long they're going to take." Azaria said sighing

Rocket grinned, "Quit complaining. Once we're done with that we'll be outta that stinkin' place and be crazy rich. Besides, you never know, something interesting might happen, it being Kyln Prison of all places."

Seeing Rocket grin always made her heart race. She had always found Rocket attractive but recently she found she liked him slightly more than usual.

Azaria pushed back those feelings and simply responded to what Rocket said with "Yeah, okay." And leaned back, closing her eyes.

Rocket wanted to do the same but he found himself staring at her. He looked over her features, taking in every detail. Had she always been this beautiful? And how come he was staring at her more often? He growled softly, _'Quit staring you creep! Just 'cause you find her attractive doesn't mean you should be staring at her like some stalker!' _ He thought

Wait. Attractive? Since when did he find Azaria attractive? And even if he did, that still wasn't a good thing. Was it?

'_No! Of course it isn't a good thing you moron! _He screamed at himself, _'She's your best friend! You shouldn't be thinking of her like that!'_

He sighed. _'She is hot, though. Gotta admit that.'_

'_Stop that!' _He growled as he shook his head and pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind, not wanting to deal with them. He had enough problems as it was, he didn't need the idea that maybe, just maybe, he had a crush on Azaria.

* * *

"Next!" one of the guards screamed at Azaria, making her frown but she moved up onto the platform and she looked into the holographic screen where she knew the Nova Corps officers would be checking her record. She had been through this before so she knew how all this went.

"Let's see. Okay, name is Azaria Mantlo. Daughter of Dr. Ozias Mantlo." The officer read off the screen.

Hearing her fathers' name, Azaria growled in anger, her hair beginning to glow as if it had been set on fire.

From the rest of the line, the human, now known to Rocket as Peter Quill, looks over to him muttering "Guess she didn't get along that well with her old man huh?"

"Oh yeah. Her and me both." Rocket said frowning.

Peter looks confused for a moment but he shrugged guessing Rocket had met her dad as well. 'Must not be a fun guy then.' He thought.

* * *

"I guess most of Nova Corps wanna uphold the laws... but these one's here, they're corrupt and cruel. But, hey, that's not my problem!" Rocket said as they walked in a straight line to get 'cleaned' up. "I ain't gonna be here long! Me and Azaria have escaped 22 prisons, this one's no different. You're just lucky the broad showed up, otherwise me, Azaria an' Groot would be collectin' that bounty right now and you'd be getting drawn and quartered by Yondu and those Ravengers."

Peter scoffed. "I've had a lot of folks try to kill me over the years. I ain't about to be brought down by a_ girl, a tree _and _a talking raccoon." _

Azaria's eyes narrowed and she turned around to glare at Peter. "Do you have a problem with me being a girl?"

Peter saw the small spark of anger in her eyes and raised his hands in surrender "No, nothing! No problem!" he said slightly panicky.

"Hold." the guard leading them ordered.

They stopped walking and Rocket looked confused but angry at the same time.

"What's a raccoon?" he asked. He didn't know if Peter was insulting him or not but he still didn't like the sound of the word.

Peter rolled his eyes. " 'What's a raccoon?' It's what you are, stupid!"

"Ain't nothing like me, 'cept me!" Rocket said, pointing his thumb to himself proudly.

Azaria looked over the guards' shoulder and noticed that he had a type of device on his arm. The guard finished typing in a password and the door opened as she put away the new info.

"So," Peter spoke "this orb has a real shiny blue suitcase, Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon sort of vibe. What is it?" he asked Gamora.

"I am Groot." Groot answered him.

"So what? What's the orb?" Peter said, still having zero clue what Groot was saying.

"I have no words for an honor-less thief." Gamora said showing no emotion.

"Pretty high and mighty coming from the lackey of a genocidal maniac." Rocket said sending her a glare. Gamora looked surprised and turned to Azaria.

"Yeah, we know who you are; anyone who's anyone knows who you are." Azaria responds.

"Yeah, we know who you are." Peter said then turned to Groot, "Who is she?"

"I am Groot." Groot answered.

"You said that already." Peter said sounding annoyed

Gamora spoke up, "I wasn't retrieving the orb for Ronan. I was _betraying _him… I had an agreement to sell it to a third party."

Azaria's eyebrows furrow. _'What was so important about this thing? What was in the orb?'_

"I am Groot." Groot said

"Well, that's just as fascinating as the first _89 times _you've told me that." Peter said sarcastically "What is wrong with _giving tree,_ here?"

Azaria shot a glare at Peter as Rocket said "Well he don't know talkin' good like me and you. So his vocabulistics are limited to _'I' _and _'Am' _and _'Groot'. Exclusively _in that order."

"Well let me tell you what, that's gonna wear real thin, real fast. If I..." Peter said but was interrupted by the sound of something in one of the rooms they walked by. He turned and saw one of the guards using his Walkman.

Peter quickly moved out of line and into the room before the door closed. "Hey! Put that away."

The guard ignores him and places the headphones onto his head.

"You son of a... Hey! Listen to me, you big blue bastard. Take those headphones off. That's mine, those belong to impound. That tape and that player is mine!" Peter yelled at the guard, furious.

Suddenly the guard pokes Peter with his stun-rod and he gets zapped with an electric shock. Peter fell to his knees, glaring at the guard, hears the song that was currently playing on his Walkman through the headphones.

"Hooked on a Feeling! Blue Swede! 1973! THAT SONG BELONGS TO ME!" Peter yelled.

The guard uses his stun-rod again, poking him harder this time and Peter fell onto the ground, his body shaking violently. Azaria stared wide eyed and looked next to her after hearing a snicker.

Azaria looked at Rocket as he said, "I told you something interesting would happen." This made her smile remembering their previous conversation.

"Guess you were right." She said holding in a laugh as well.

* * *

After the little zapping incident, Azaria was pushed into one of the showers and one of the guards screamed "Get undressed!"

Her eyes widened. "Wait what?!" Azaria's face had gone red. I mean come on! The guy was still in the room!

"Hurry up! We don't have all day!" the guard said slightly annoyed

"Fine." Azaria grumbled but kept her eye on the guards, not taking any chances.

They end up 'hosing' her down with a kind of orange fluid and handed her a yellow uniform, shoving her into a room where Peter and Rocket were also changing.

She sits down and begins to get dressed, noticing Peter staring at Rocket strangely as he left the room, almost in surprise but in sympathy as well. Azaria knows he must have seen the metal and tech stuff drilled into Rocket's back so she kept her mouth shut.

"Hey." She hears. Rocket stood next to her, fully dressed. She glanced his way and gave him a small smile. "They… they didn't touch you or anything did they?" he asked

Azaria looked up and smirked at Rocket "Are you actually _worried_ about me?"

"What? No! Well, I mean yes – wait! What I mean is that I know you can take care of yourself but, well…" he stuttered, rubbing the back of his neck, grateful that he had fur so she couldn't see him blushing. "I um, well, don't really like the thought of these sons of bitches doing anything to you and I don't know about it."

Azaria stared at him and smiled. She leaned over to him and pressed a small kiss to the top of his head. "That's really sweet, Rocky."

Rocket's eyes shot open and he stiffened. Now he was probably one of the luckiest people alive because he felt his face become twice as red as before and he was so relieved the girl in front of him couldn't see. Because if she did… oh boy, she would never let him forget it.

When Azaria backed away, Rocket was still gaping at her in surprise making her laugh. "Oh c'mon! It was just a little kiss! Don't over react." She said through her giggles.

Rocket blinked. "Huh? Oh, right yeah." he muttered, his brain still working out what had just happened.

Azaria's smile faltered. "You okay? You've been actin' weird lately."

"Hmm? Uh, yeah. Everything's fine. C'mon let's go. We're dragging." Rocket said, his mind finally working.

Azaria watched him leave the room and she followed behind him, still not fully convinced that her best friend was "fine".

* * *

The group was lead to a large room where the rest of the prisoners were. They were met with screams and death threats which Azaria could tell were all aimed for Gamora.

"Like I said, she's got a rep. A lot of prisoners here have lost their families to Ronan and his goons. She'll last a day tops." Rocket told the group.

"The guards will protect her, right?" Peter asked sounding concerned

"No way. Not a chance." Azaria scoffed. _'Wow. This guy has only known Gamora for a few hours and she tried to kill him. Why is he worried for her?'_

"She's right. They're here to stop us from getting out. They don't care what we do to each other inside." Rocket said seriously.

"Whatever nightmares the future holds are _dreams _compared to what's behind me." Gamora said, ignoring the many threats that were thrown at her.

"Yessh! Ronan was that much of an asshole huh?" Azaria said trying to lightened the mood.

Gamora didn't respond but she didn't look angry either, just slightly surprised at what she said.

Before anyone could react to Azaria's words, a huge blue alien moved in front of Peter and put his hands onto his face.

"Check out the new meat. I'm going to slather you up in Gunavian jelly and go to town..." He growled to Peter who didn't know how to react.

Then out of nowhere, Groot stepped up and stuck his fingers into the mans' nose, lifting him up into the sir, the man screaming and crying in pain. Azaria's eyes widened. She rarely saw Groot hurt people and every time she did, she was always surprised. Rocket walked up next to Groot and yelled to the entire room.

"Let's make something clear! This one here's our booty! You wanna get to him, you go through us! Or, more accurately, we. Go. Through. You!"

Everyone in the prison was silent, taken aback by Rocket's outburst and threat. Rocket grabbed Azaria's hand and pulled her along with him. "Come on, Groot. Let's go." He said and Groot pulls his fingers out, dropping the man to the ground with a thump, the man continuing to cry like a little child.

Peter looked around the room. "I'm with them." He said, quickly following after Groot.

* * *

**There you go! Hope you liked it! Thank you to everyone who is following and has favorited my story. It means so much to me. :D **

**I also based the nickname my OC gave Rocket off one of my favorite Beatles songs, "Rocky Raccoon". I read that the creators of Rocket based his name off of that song so I used the nickname. ^^ **

**Anyways, see you all next time! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey Guys! I'm back! Hope you like this chapter; I had to hurry this one up because my whole schedule has been crazy and then the site wouldn't work so I couldn't upload on Monday or Tuesday but here it is! Enjoy!**

***I do not own any of these characters, only my OC Azaria.***

* * *

"So, you think up of how we're gonna get out of this place yet?" Azaria asks Rocket as they sit down in their little corner of the room. They were in a large cell, and it looked like almost half of the prison was going to sleep in it. Groot leaned up against the wall and formed a small sort of nest in which Azaria was now laying in.

Rocket looked around to make sure no one heard him or was ease dropping and answered "Yeah. You see that watchtower out there?" he asked pointing outside. Azaria and Groot turn and look through the cell bars. They nod after seeing the tall structure and Rocket continues.

"Well on the side of it, there's this little box with a yellow blinking light. I'll show you tomorrow. Anyways, inside it is a quarnyx battery. I need it because I'm gonna use it to get into the watchtower."

"Ok. Good plan. But how is a battery going to help us get in? We're going to need something else." Azaria said.

"That's my problem. I still gotta work that part out. I still don't know what we could use." Rocket said, running a paw through his fur while he sighed.

Azaria laid her head back and thought about the situation. Seconds later her face lit up and she exclaimed "I got it!"

Rocket jumped slightly and looked over to her. "Alright, what is it? Just keep it down."

Azaria smiled sheepishly "Sorry. I just remembered that the guards use security bands on their arms to control all of the doors in this place. I noticed it when the guards took us to get cleaned up. We could connect that to the battery to break in."

Rocket looked impressed "Yeah. You're right. Nice job sweetheart."

Azaria smiled proudly, happy to have helped him, making Rocket smirk. It amazed him how different they could be personality wise. She was mostly always happy, except when he got her mad. Rocket smiled at that. He loved it when she got mad. Sure it scared him half to death but he liked the thought that she could take care of herself, though he still liked to worry about her even if he could end up hurting her himself what with his trigger happy attitude.

'_That's another thing'_ he thought as the trio settled down for sleep. Azaria was mostly calm and really thought things through, unlike how he would just think up of something on the spot. She kept him in check, most of the time.

"Come on bud. Let's get some shut eye. I'm burned out." Azaria said and Rocket climbed on top of her, curling up on her stomach.

Azaria smiled and placed a hand on the soft fur on his head, emitting a purr from Rocket. Only minutes later he fell asleep, his breathing a steady rhythm.

* * *

The feeling of something rough on his back took him out from his sleeping. The hair on the side of his face was matted down and it stuck out in weird directions. Rocket quickly fixed his hair and finally noticed something was different. Azaria wasn't there. He looked around the room for her and saw her quickly turning a corner, clearly following someone.

Rocket frowned and hastily followed her.

"Azaria! Azaria hold up!" he whispered to her after catching up. She turned around and slowed down so she was now next to him.

"What are you doing?!" Rocket asked his voice rising slightly "Someone could have seen you! Why are you up anyways?"

"Because Quill got up so I decided to follow him. We can't risk him getting hurt or we lose the bounty. Besides calm down! No one saw me so don't worry." Azaria told him whispering as well.

Rocket frowned. She was right about Quill but he still didn't like that she just got up and went around the prison by herself. Before he could retort, they heard Quill speak up and they both turned to attention.

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey. Hey!" Peter suddenly interrupted whatever conversation the inamtes hurting Gamora were having.

"Oh, crap." Rocket whispered knowing there was no way out now.

"You know, if killing Ronan is truly sole purpose, I don't think this is the best way to go about it." Peter said holding his hands in front of him. He was talking to a large muscular man with red tattoos all over his body and he currently held a knife to Gamora's throat.

"Are you not the man this wench attempted to kill?" the man asked Peter, his voice rough.

"Well, I mean, she's hardly the first woman to try and do that to me." Peter replied, pulling up his shirt to show three scars on his abdomen. "This is from a smokin' hot Rajak girl. Stabbed me with a fork. Didn't like me skipping out on her at sunrise."

Peter fixed his shirt and pulled down the collar of it, showing once again a scar. " I got, right here, a Kree girl tried to rip out my thorax. She caught me this skinny A'askavariian girl who worked at Nova Records, I was trying to get information. I mean have you seen an A'askavariian? They have tentacles and needles for teeth. If you think I'm seriously interested in that, then- and you don't care." Peter cut himself off after seeing the man clearly didn't look amused.

"I know I've seen that guy before." Azaria whispered to Rocket who nodded.

"Yeah. That's Drax the Destroyer." He said and Azaria was about to exclaim but stopped herself knowing they'd get the man's attention.

"But here's the point," Peter said talking again "She _betrayed _Ronan. He's coming back for her. And when he does, that's when you…" he trailed off as he put a finger to his throat and sliding it across, symbolizing a knife.

Drax on the other hand looked extremely confused. "Why would I put my finger on his throat?"

"What? Oh, this is a symbol. This is a symbol for you slicing his throat." Peter explained.

"I would not slice his throat. I would cut his head clean off." Drax said a look of anger and determination crossed his face.

Peter sighed, exasperated "It's just a general expression for you killing somebody. You've heard of this. You've seen this, right?" he asked the squeamish looking guy who stood behind Drax. "You know what this is."

The guy nodded but when Drax turned to him, he quickly shook his head muttering no to him.

"Kiss ass." Azaria muttered under her breath making Rocket cover his mouth to keep from laughing.

Peter rolled his eyes "What I'm saying is, you want to keep her alive. Don't do his work for him."

Drax thought about what he had said, looking at Gamora. Eventually, he let Gamora go and Peter finally walked back with Rocket and Azaria.

* * *

"You idiot!" Azaria slapped Peter in the back of the head "why did you do that!"

"I was trying to help." Peter said as he rubbed his head.

"She's right. Why would you care about what happens to me? I tried to kill you." Gamora said to him.

"Listen, I could care less whether you live or whether you die." Peter replied reaching their cell.

Gamora turned to look at Peter, standing in front of him. "Then why stop the big guy?"

Peter smiled "Simple. You know where to sell my orb."

"How are we going to sell the orb when _we _and _it _are still here?" Gamora said sighing

Peter, still smiling, turned to Rocket "My friend Rocket, here, has escaped 22 prisons."

"Oh, we're gettin' out. And then we're headed straight to Yondu to retrieve your bounty." Rocket said

Azaria rolled her eyes but smiled anyways "So, how much was your buyer willing to pay for that orb?"

Gamora looked hesitant to reveal the information "…5 billion units."

"Holy shit!" Peter exclaimed

"_What!_" Rocket and Azaria said in unison, Rocket doing a double take.

Gamora nodded, knowing it was a lot of money. "That orb is my opportunity to get away from Thanos and Ronan." She said. "If you free us, I'll lead you to the buyer directly and I'll split the profit between the four of us."

They all seemed to like the sound of the idea. 5 billion units definitely was a lot of money so how could you say no to that.

"I am Groot."

The group turned to look at Groot who was looking through the bars of their cell, appearing curious.

"Five of us." Rocket corrected, rolling his eyes and turned to look at Groot. "Asleep for the danger and awake for the money, as per frickin' usual."

Azaria giggled when Groot threw Rocket a glare.

"Well, that being settled, I think we should head back to sleep. We're gonna need it." Peter said sighing.

The rest of them nodded and went back into their cells, knowing tomorrow would get very interesting.

* * *

Even after it seemed everyone was asleep, Rocket stared up at the ceiling, his mind swimming with thoughts.

'_Stupid Quill. Why would he promise that psycho to come with us? He could be fine one minute, but the next he could be slicing all of our throats!'_

He frowned. Rocket knew those thoughts didn't really bother him so much. What bothered him was that he didn't like that Azaria was going to be on the same ship as Drax. He knew that guy would cause a lot of trouble and possibly get them all killed. He didn't care as much if he died, but Azaria? No way. He promised himself he would _never_ let that happen. She saved his life all those years ago, risked her own for his and he swore he would do everything to keep her alive. But there was no way he would tell her that. Rocket smiled. She definitely wouldn't like that. She'd probably get pissed at him for worrying too much about her.

The smile on his face fell once a thought occurred to him. He was thinking about Azaria way too much.

'_I need to stop if I really don't want this to be a problem.' _He thought. _'I __**really**__ don't want to have feelings for Azaria. It would only turn out bad. I mean, why would she even look at me like that.' _

Rocket sighed _'I'm just a little freak. There's no way she would think of me that way.' _And with that thought, he felt his eyes slowly close and sleep finally washed over him.

* * *

"Ugh, no offence to Groot but I would have rather have slept on the floor. I felt like a freakin' knife was in my back all night." Rocket groaned as he and Azaria walked over to Peter and Gamora, Groot following behind them.

Azaria laughed. "Well he is a tree so it's not really his fault."

"You're one to talk. You got all the comfortable space." Rocket continued, giving her a glare making her laugh even more.

"So what's your plan huh?" Peter asked when they reached the rest of their group.

"Ok, so if we're gonna get out of here, we're gonna need to get into that watchtower. And to do that, I'm gonna need a few things. The guards wear security bands to control their ins and outs. I need one." Rocket said as they walked to a table to sit at.

"Leave it to me." Gamora said to him, nodding.

"That dude there," Rocket pointed to a man that walked past them. "I need his prosthetic leg." He finished, keeping in a snicker. Azaria rolled her eyes, but kept her mouth shut. It would be pretty funny.

"His leg?" Peter asked, confused.

"Yeah. God knows I don't need the rest of him. Look at him, he's useless." Rocket said.

Peter shrugged, giving in. "Alright."

"And finally on that wall back there is a black panel, blinky yellow light. You see it?" Rocket continued.

They all nodded, looking at the watchtower. "There's a quarnyx battery behind it. Purple-ish box, green wires. To get into that watchtower, I definitely need it." Rocket explained.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Gamora asked.

"Well, supposedly, these bald-bodies find you attractive. So maybe you can work out some sort of trade." Rocket suggested to her.

"You must be joking." Gamora said glaring at him.

"No, I really heard they find you attractive." He said completely serious.

"Look its 20 feet up in the air, and it's the most heavily guarded part of the prison. It's impossible to get up there without being seen." Peter pointed out.

As Peter said that, Azaria looked over to the watchtower and her eyes widened slightly. She saw Groot looking at the black panel and ripped off the box, opening it.

"Um, guys?" Azaria said trying to get the groups attention.

"I got a plan and that _plan requires a frickin' quarnyx battery, __**SO FIGURE IT OUT!**_" Rocket screamed in Peters face, not hearing Azaria, who was still trying to get their attention.

"Can I get back to it?" Rocket asked sarcastically looking at Gamora. "Thanks. Now, this is important. Once the battery is removed, everything is gonna slam into emergency mode. Once we have it, we gotta move quickly, so we definitely need to get that last."

"Guys!" Azaria screamed and they all looked over to her, surprised. "Look."

They turn and see Groot rip out the battery from the black box and the lights in the room flash red, alarms screaming.

"Or we could get it first and improvise." Rocket growled.

"I'll get the arm band." Gamora said quickly getting up.

"Leg." Peter said, getting up as well.

Rocket groaned, annoyed as hell, and pulled at his fur. Azaria smiled and got up patting his shoulder.

"Come on, let's get to work."

* * *

**Well there you are! Hope you like it. I am going to try and fix any mistakes but I do really want to get this chapter out sooooo, I'll see you guys later! Please review and I hope to you guys are liking this story so far. :D **


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey guys! I'm back with another chapter! Hope you guys like it and just so you know I have made some slight changes to the previous chapters and made some corrections. Anyways, please review and enjoy! :D**

* * *

After the alarms start blaring out after Groot pulled the battery from the black box, the prison security droids quickly go and surround him.

"Prisoner," the guard from the watchtower barks out "drop the device immediately and retreat to your cell or we will open fire."

Groot only snarled and screamed, "_**I AM GROOT!**_"

"Fire!" the guard orders and the security droids start firing at Groot as he lashes his branches out at them.

Rocket and Azaria race over to Groot and Rocket quickly climbs up onto his shoulder. "You idiot! How am I supposed to fight these things without my stuff?"

"The animal is in control. Fire on my command!" one of the prison guards screams.

Azaria quickly grabs a chair near her and hits two of the guards around her. Behind her, she hears a loud thump and quickly turns around to find one of the guards on the ground, unconscious, Drax standing above him, looking satisfied to have finally hit something after so long.

Drax bends down and hands her two of the guns that were on the ground.

"Um, thanks." Azaria said surprised he was helping them. Drax only nodded and then went to continue to take down the rest of the prison's security guards, which he looked very happy to do.

Azaria held both guns in her hands and looked up at Rocket.

"ROCKET!" she yelled. "Catch!"

He looks at her when she throws him one of the guns and he catches it with ease.

He cocks the gun, holding it like it was worth millions and a dangerous smile formed on his face.

"Oh, _yeah_."

The next minute, he began shooting in every direction, Azaria needing to run with her head down because of the massive array of bullets flying through the air.

'_Me and my stupid ideas!_' she thought '_Why did I give him of all people a gun! Idiot!_' Azaria finally made it over to Groot without getting her head blown off and climbed up on top of him.

"You psycho! You could have shot me!" she screamed at Rocket, now on Groot's shoulder cocking her own gun.

"You shoulda expected that from me." He answered back, still shooting like no tomorrow with a picture of pure glee and happiness on his face.

Azaria just rolled her eyes and started shooting at the many security droids and guards surrounding them.

From one of the balconies, they hear Gamora scream out "Rocket!"

He turned and Gamora threw him the armband, catching it and yells "Move to the watchtower!" he then turns to Groot and asks him for the battery. Once he has it, he starts putting the two together, humming some random tune.

'_Of course, only he would hum in this situation_.' Azaria thought, a small smile on her lips.

After the five of them finally get on the walkway to the watchtower and Rocket uses the small device in his hands, pushes a few buttons, and opens the door.

The guard turns to look at them and raises his hands up. The group walks in and Groot grabs him throwing him out of the watchtower as Rocket tossed the device aside and jumped onto the control panel.

Once they were all in the room, Gamora turned and looks at Drax in complete shock and anger. Drax looked back equally angry.

"Spare me your foul gaze, woman."

Gamora then turns to look at Peter. "Why is this one here?"

"We promised him he could stay by our side until he kills your boss. I always keep my promises, when they're to muscle-bound whack jobs who will kill me if I don't." he answered her and turned to Rocket. He stepped forward and put the prosthetic leg on the control panel next to him. "Here you go."

Rocket stares at it and laughs "Oh, I was just kidding about the leg. I just need these two things."

"What?"

"No, I… I thought it'd be funny." Rocket said through his laughter, "Was it funny? No, wait, what did he look like hopping around?"

Peter glared at him "I had to transfer him thirty thousand units!" At that response, Rocket just snickered to himself.

Drax looks at Peter, asking "How are we going to leave?"

"Well, he's got a plan." Peter says motioning to Rocket "Right? Or is that just another thing you made up?"

"I have a plan! I have a plan!" Rocket growls.

Drax frowns and looks around the small room. "Cease your yammering and relieve us from this irksome confinement."

Peter nods "Yeah, I'll have to agree with the walking thesaurus on that one."

Drax shot him a death glare. "Do not ever call me a thesaurus."

"It's just a metaphor, dude." Peter explained sighing.

"His people are completely literal, metaphors are gonna go over his head." Rocket said without looking up at them.

Drax frowns. "Nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it."

"I am going to die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy." Gamora muttered to herself.

"Well, you're not completely wrong…" Azaria added under her breath.

Their attention was suddenly caught when the prison guards surround the watchtower carrying large weapons.

"Those are some big guns." Peter said unnecessarily

"On my command! Number one!" the head guard ordered. The rest fired at on one of the windows.

"Rodent, we are ready for your plan." Gamora snapped.

"Hold on!"

The guard screamed again "Number two!" They then shot at the second window.

"I recognize this animal. We'd roast them over a flame pit as children. Their flesh was quite delicious." Drax stated for no reason at all.

"_Not_ helping!" Rocket growled as he rushed with the controls.

"Number three!" The guard commanded and they fired at the third window, making it crack, a small piece falling off.

Azaria looked at the broken window and her hair began to slowly turn orange from the tips meaning she was worried.

"You might want to hurry it up there, Rocket." She said biting her lip.

"All fire on my command!" The guard ordered and the rest of them readied the final shot as Rocket quickly worked out the many buttons on the control panel.

"Three! Two! One!"

Azaria shuts her eyes, not wanting to see the whole watchtower get blown up. But just as the guard screamed the final number, the entire prison was silenced as they all began floating and Azaria opened her eyes as she and the rest of the group looked around in awe at Rocket's accomplishment.

"You turned off the artificial gravity, everywhere but in here." Gamora murmured a slight smile on her face.

Rocket smirked. "I told you I had a plan." He then pulled a lever, disconnecting the watchtower from the base and then uses one of the screens on the control panel to control the security droids and uses them to jet out of the prison.

The watchtower bounced like a ball in a pinball machine as it flew through the tunnels in the prison, and finally crashing to a halt.

"That was a pretty good plan." Peter mumbled, breaking the silence.

"Good job Rocky!" Azaria praised happily, the tips of her hair now turning from orange back to its original light purple, as she hugged him.

Rocket stood slightly taller "Thanks, sweetheart."

Peter kicked one of the windows and the five of them get out of the watchtower.

"So…. how do we get out of here?" Azaria asked as they through the many boxes and drawers to get their belongings.

Peter looked up and turned to look out a window. His eyes lit up when he saw what he was looking for. "Yeah! There it is. Get my ship. It's the Milano, the orange and blue one over in the corner."

"Alright then." Azaria says finally finding her clothes. Rocket finds his as well and frowns.

"They crumpled my pants into a ball. That's rude! They folded yours." He complained pointing to Azaria folded shirt and pants. Azaria giggles at how silly it sounded and ruffled the top of his head walking to the door to get over to Peter's ship, Rocket behind her.

"Since when have you cared about your clothes?" she asks with a smile.

"Since never! I'm just saying they could have been nicer." Rocket said but couldn't hide the small grin on his face. Azaria giggled again and they walked over to Peter's ship.

After getting into the ship, Gamora gets in and straps herself into her chair holding Peter's bag. Rocket starts the ship, flying out of the prison and stopping outside of it when Azaria spoke up.

"Wait. Where's Peter?" Azaria asks looking over the top of her seat.

"He… went to go get something. I do not know what." Gamora replied.

"He what?!" Azaria moaned in frustration "Well, how's he gonna get to us?"

"He declined to share that information with me."

Rocket threw his hands up into the air from the pilots' seat. "Well, screw this, then! I ain't waiting around for some humie with a death wish." He turned to Gamora. "You got the orb, right?"

"Yes." She answered and looks into the bag but suddenly growls in anger when she sees that the orb is gone.

"What is it?" Azaria asks her.

"The orb. Quill has it."

"What? So now what? We can't just stay here. But we need that orb." Azaria says, looking at Rocket now over what to do.

"Well, we do need the orb but ….. If we don't leave now, we'll be blown to bits." He says.

"No!" Gamora snaps "We're not leaving without the orb."

Not really paying attention to the conversation, Drax lets his eyes wander to the window next to him and notices Peter flying towards them.

"Behold." He says. They stop talking and look outside as well. Peter flew towards them and landed on the top of the ship. They opened the hatch to let him in and help him inside.

"This one shows spirit. He shall make a keen ally in the battle against Ronan." Drax says helping Peter to his feet as he stumbles off the ladder. "Companion, what were you retrieving?"

Peter hands him the Walkman and walks off to his seat. Drax stares at the small music player and looks up at Gamora. "You are an imbecile."

Gamora groans, "Yes. I know."

* * *

As they are flying off in the Milano, Azaria walks over and sits down next to Rocket as he is taking apart parts from Peters' ship and using them to build another some form of weapon.

"You know Peter's going to get mad when he finds you using parts of his ship." Azaria pointed out.

"Yeah? So what? I don't care." He mumbles, focused on his building.

Azaria smiles at him. '_He is so cute and adorable when he's building things._' She feels her face heat up and is glad he is so distracted. '_God, I really need to get these feelings under control. One day he's going to notice._' But before she could think about that area of thoughts any longer, just like she had said, Peter came in and seeing Rocket using parts from his ship, got angry.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Yo, Ranger Rick! What are you doing? You can't take apart my ship without asking me! See, what is this?" Peter said pointing to one of the devices at his feet.

"Don't touch that, it's a bomb." Rocket answered, still focused on whatever he was building.

"A bomb?" Peter said, now wary of it and stepping back from it.

"Yep."

"And you leave it lying around?"

Rocket sighed, finally looking up. "I was going to put in a box."

Peter frowned. "What's a box gonna do?"

Rocket looked next to him and pulled out a small wrapped box. "How about this one?"

Peter bends down and snatches it away. "No! Whoa! Hey! Hey! Leave it alone!"

"Why? What is it?" Rocket asks, confused about Peter's reaction.

"Shut up." He muttered still holding the box close.

"Hey!"

"What is that?" Peter points to another one of Rocket's destructive machines, wanting to change the topic.

"That's for if things get really hardcore." Rocket said with a grin, "Or if you wanna blow up moons."

"No one is blowing up moons." Gamora said from the front.

Rocket frown and looked disappointed. "You just wanna suck the joy out of everything."

Azaria giggles and looks over at the machine they had been talking about. "Can that thing really blow up a moon?"

Rocket grins at her. "Oh yeah. It definitely can."

Azaria just stares at him with nothing more than admiration. "You're a genius, you know that?"

Rocket looks back down and goes back to fiddling with his device. "Yeah. Whatever."

Azaria's eye brows furrows. There it was again. He was acting weird lately, even before they got dragged into this big thing. He acted like this every time she said something nice to him or even touched him in an affectionate way, he'd get all shy. The Rocket she grew up know never got shy. Why did he suddenly start acting like this?

'_You could say the same about yourself.'_

She frowned. She knew it was true. She liked Rocket. A lot. She had accepted it. And she had asked herself the same question when she had begun to have feelings for him.

'_But… does that mean… he could maybe…. No! No way would he like you. He probably just sees you like a friend.' _

She shook her head and got up. Rocket looked up at her sudden movement, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just gonna walk around. My foot's falling asleep." She said, quickly thinking of an excuse.

"Oh. Okay." Rocket said, accepting her response.

She walked away, and let out a breath. She really had to get this crush under control. It was making her imagine things that weren't true.

* * *

**Well, there you go! I made this one have more of Azaria's inner thinking because I felt like the last chapter had more of Rocket's thinking. You may have also realized something about my OC. Yes, her hair does change color based on her emotions. Sorta like Tonks in Harry Potter. But the amount that changes color is based on how strong the emotion is. Anyways, I'm just rambling, hope you guys liked it. Please review, it really makes my day to see that you guys are liking this so far. I will check for any mistakes but other than that, see you next time. :D **


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! :D I'm back and am very happy to say that the doctors did find the cancer my cousin had but it was small and in the very early stages so they were able to take it out. It was a very scary situation but I admire my cousin so much for being so brave during the whole thing. I am very glad to at least be over with that and not worry anymore and after words my cousin di give me a small scolding for keeping you guys waiting so here you go! A new chapter! I hope you like it and please leave a review. Reviews = love.**

* * *

Gamora stood at a nearby table, looking at the screen on it but her eyes trained on the grey orb next to her hand.

"That must be pretty important if you went through so much to get it." Azaria says to her after her little 'walk'. Gamora looked up at her and nodded.

"Yes. It is extremely powerful. Ronan wanted it to destroy Xandar. Though I still do not know what is inside it." She said looking back down.

Azaria nodded, looking at the orb as well. If this is something Ronan wanted, she guessed Gamora wasn't lying about it being powerful. She almost didn't want to know what _was_ inside it. Almost. They were taken out of their thoughts when Peter walked over to them.

"So, listen, I'm gonna need your buyer's coordinates." Peter said looking at Gamora.

She looked up from the screen on the table and looked at him. "We're heading in the right direction, for now." and looked back down picking up the orb that was on the table as well.

"If we're gonna work together, you might want to try trusting me little more." Peter answered her and she looked back up at him.

"And how much do you trust me?"

Peter took the orb out of Gamora's hand. "I'd trust you a lot more if you told me what this was. Because I'm guessing it's some kind of weapon."

"She doesn't know what it is. All she knows is that Ronan wants it so it definitely isn't good." Azaria said folding her arms across her chest. Peter shrugs and places the orb back onto the table.

Drax walks over and picks it up "If it's a weapon, we should use it against Ronan." He growled.

"Put it down, you fool! You'll destroy us all." Gamora glared at him.

"Or just you, murderess!" Drax snapped back. Gamora walked up to him, furious.

"I let you live once, princess!"

"I am not a princess!" The two glared at each other, both looking ready to kill the other.

Rocket walked up to Azaria, the commotion catching his attention.

"What's goin' on? They finally snap?" He asked her. She glanced his way and shook her head.

"Nah. The two loose cannons are just arguing. It's all just threats."

Rocket nodded, slightly disappointed that there wasn't any real fight. Peter, seeing the two glaring fireballs at each other, quickly stepped in before any real fight could start.

"Hey! Nobody is killing anybody on my ship! We're stuck together until we get the money."

Drax steps back still glaring at Gamora and throws the orb to Peter. "I have no interest in money." And walks off.

"Great." Peter says, looking at all of them. "That means more money for the four of us."

Beside him, he hears a grunt and looks up to see Groot standing next him, looking sad that they forgot to include him. Peter sighs and nods.

"For the five of us. Partners."

Gamora just glares at him too. "We had an agreement, but I would never be partners with the likes of you. I'll tell the buyer we're on our way." She turns and begins to walk up the stairs. She then turns back to him, disgust on her face. "And Quill, your ship is filthy."

Peter stares at her and once she is out of hearing distance, he looks over to Azaria and Rocket. "Oh, she has no idea. If I had a black light, the place would look like a Jackson Pollock painting." He says with a small smirk.

Azaria just pinches the bridge of her nose and shakes her head walking away while Rocket just stares at him, also shaking his head. "You got issues, Quill."

* * *

"Are we almost there?" Azaria asks Rocket, slumped in the seat next to him.

Rocket glances over to her. "That is like the fourth time you asked me that and I'm going to give you the same answer. Yes, we are almost there." He said looking annoyed.

She looks over to him, grinning. She liked messing with him. "Well can't you drive faster? I've seen you drive ships that got us to Knowhere in like fifteen minutes."

Rocket sighs "Yes, but Quill's stupid ship is almost out of fuel so we have to drive slower."

Azaria groans and slumps lower in her seat and grins when she hears Rocket chuckling next to her.

"Quick acting like a child and sit up straight." Rocket says, trying to sound serious but failing.

"Yes mother." Azaria answered, still grinning making Rocket laugh.

A few more minutes pass and Rocket yells to Peter over the music that was playing in the ship. "Heads up! We're inbound."

"Yes! Finally." Azaria says happily, while Rocket grins at her.

Peter goes up the stairs and walks to the front of the ship. The group watches as the Milano flies over to Knowhere.

Peter's eyes widens at the site of it. "Whoa."

"What is it?" Drax asks looking at it in similar awe.

Gamora on the other hand didn't look fazed. "It's called Knowhere. The severed head of an ancient celestial being. Be wary heading in, rodent. There are no regulations whatsoever here."

Rocket nodded and steered the ship as they entered Knowhere. They land and step out of the Milano, following Gamora as she led them through the crowded streets.

"Hundreds of years ago, the Tivan Group sent workers in to mine the organ matter within the skull." Gamora told them as they walked. "The bone, brain tissue, spinal fluid. All rare resources, highly valued in black markets across the galaxy. It's dangerous and illegal work, suitable only for outlaws."

Peter looks around the place, never having been there, but having heard Gamora mutters "Well, I come from a planet of outlaws. Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde, and John Stamos,"

"It sounds like a place which I would like to visit." Drax said impressed by the way Earth sounded.

Peter nods. "Yeah, you should."

Suddenly a crowd of kids surround them and bump into them. Peter frowns and shoves his hands into his pockets.

"Watch your wallets."

"Can you spare any units?" one of the kids asks them, his small hand reached out. Azaria's eyes soften and she reaches into her pocket but is pulled away by Rocket.

"Quit being so generous. C'mon. "He says to her and glances over to the kid. "Get out of here."

"I was just being nice." Azaria mutters under her breath as Rocket holds her hand pulling her along.

'Oh my God, he isn't letting go of my hand!' Azaria feels a small blush form on her cheeks at the thought.

The group ends up walking over to a bar and Rocket's face takes a look of confusion. "Your buyer's in there?"

Gamora shook her head. "We are to wait here for his representative."

They watch as a bouncer of the place throws out one of the customers, screaming something at him in the process.

Drax frowns and turns to Gamora. "This is no respectable establishment. What do you expect us to do while we wait?"

"I don't know! Figure something out." Gamora snipped.

Azaria smirked. "Well, we might as well enjoy ourselves while we're here." She looks down at Rocket and grins. "C'mon. Let's go get drunk off our asses."

Rocket grinned back. "Best idea ever." And they ran over to the bar, Groot following behind. The other three just looked at each other, shrugged and followed them inside.

* * *

Yelling and cheers filled the bar as many of the people inside crowded around a long table where a game was taking place. The people placed bets on rat-like animals chasing smaller animals and they bet on which one would eat the smaller one faster. Drax and Rocket cheered from one of the sides of the table, having already placed their money on of the animals.

Azaria stood next to Groot, looking slightly bored, never having been one for gambling. Groot on the other hand looked uncomfortable to be around the whole game, not liking to see the animals devour the smaller ones.

"Yes! Yes!" Drax cheered his fist in the air.

"Yahoo!" Rocket cheered along with him, downing the drink in his hand. They watch as the animal they bet on chased one of the smaller animals and lifted it into the air and it fell into its mouth.

Drax yelled happily, a huge grin on his face. "My Orloni has won, as I win at all things!" he then gulped down his own drink, slamming the glass onto the table. "Now, let us put more of this liquid into our bodies."

Rocket grinned up at him and laughed. "That's the first thing you've said that wasn't bat-shit crazy!"

Azaria rolled her eyes and looked around the bar and let her mind wander for just a few minutes. That turned out to be a mistake because a crash brought her back to reality and she snapped her head to see Drax and Rocket yelling at each other. Drax yelled something at Rocket that seemed like an insult, Azaria couldn't really hear over all the noise in the bar. But before she could step into break up the fight, Groot beat her to it and tacked Drax to the ground.

"Wait guys, stop!" Azaria yelled at them, and saw Gamora and Peter step back inside.

"What's going on?!" Peter asks her

Azaria runs a hand through her hair "I don't know! One minute they were getting along fine and the next they were yelling and at each other's throats."

Gamora ran over to Groot and drags him off of Drax. "Stop it!"

Rocket gets up and points his gun at Drax, and is about to shoot but Azaria quickly steps in front of the gun.

"Whoa! Whoa! Hold on Rocket. Don't do anything stupid." She says her hands in front of her.

"This vermin speaks of affairs he knows nothing about!" Drax yells over her shoulder.

Rocket growls at him, fuming. "That is true!"

"He has no respect!"

"That is also true!"

Peter steps in and looks between the two. "Hold on! Hold on!"

Rocket ignores him and continues to yell at Drax. "Keep callin' me vermin, tough guy! You just wanna laugh at me like everyone else!" he screams, his voice cracking slightly.

Azaria's expression softens and she steps closer to him. "Rocky, calm down, you're just drunk. Alright? No one is laughing at you."

Rocket looks at her and then to the rest of the group, pointing at Drax. "He thinks I'm some stupid thing! He does! Well, I didn't ask to get made!" his voice begins to break and quiver as he talked.

Azaria watched him, feeling her heart break. She had seen him like this before, a lot actually, when he would wake up in the middle of the night screaming and she would have to lay in bed with him, stroking the fur on his head for him to calm down and go back to sleep. She hated it when he got like this. It reminded her of her father and she felt slightly responsible for it because if only she had gotten him out sooner, maybe… she shook her head and she forced her attention back on her best friend.

Rocket had tears in the corners of his eyes but he refused to let them fall. The anger he had won over the sadness anyway. "I didn't ask to be torn apart, and put back together, over and over and turned into some… some little monster!"

"Rocket, no one's calling you a monster." Azaria said to him softly.

He looked at her and felt the need to just drop his gun and let her comfort him, let her hold him, let her whisper to him that everything was alright like she would do when he had his nightmares but he willed himself not to and he glared back at Drax and Gamora.

"He called me vermin! She called me rodent! Let's see if you can laugh after five or six good shots to your fuckin' face!" Rocket raises his gun again and points it back onto Drax before Peter steps in, his hands in front of him.

"No, no, no, no! Five billion units! Rocket! Come on, man. Hey! Suck it up for one more lousy night and you're rich."

Rocket looked at him, hesitating for a moment but then lowers his gun. "Fine. But I can't promise when this is all over I'm not gonna kill every last one of you jerks." He mumbled.

"See? That's exactly why none of you have any friends! Five seconds after you meet somebody, you're already trying to kill them!" Peter says throwing his hands into the air.

Drax just huffs in anger. "We have traveled halfway across the quadrant, and Ronan is no closer to being dead." He then turns and storms out of the place, pushing the people in his way.

Peter sighs and calls after him. "Drax!"

"Let him go. We don't need him." Gamora tells him, shaking her head.

Azaria kneels down next to Rocket and moves the large gun away from him. He doesn't look up at her; he just continues to look at the floor, sniffling slightly.

She places her hand on his head and softly runs her fingers through his fur. He stiffens underneath her touch but relaxes after a few seconds.

"You okay, bud?" she asks quietly, so quietly only he and she could hear.

Rocket nods and before she knew what had happened, he turns and hugs her, digging his face into the crook of her neck. Her face heats up and she is left to kneel there completely stunned. Slowly, she raps her arms around him and hugs him back, the two of them not saying a word.

They separate and they only look at each other, waiting for the other to speak. They stare at each other for what feels like hours until the silence is finally broken by a light, airy voice from the bar entrance.

They all look over to the sound and see a woman with pink skin standing in the doorway.

"Milady Gamora, I'm here to fetch you for my master."

They look over to Gamora and she nods to them that they should follow.

* * *

**Well, there you go! Hope you guys liked it, though I did start to get all sad again when I wrote the scene where Rocket gets drunk and has his little rant. Every time I watch the scene, I cry a little and every time I just wish I could go in and hug him. :,( Anyway, hope you guys liked it either way. Please review, it always helps and makes me so happy to know you guys are loving the story so far. I will see you all next time for a new chapter! Bye! :D **


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey! I'm back! :D I am so sorry to keep you guys waiting for so long. I just had some really bad writers block so I had to just walk away for a while. But here you go. Thanks for staying with me. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

The group leaves the bar and follows the pink-skinned woman in silence until Peter breaks it by waking over to Gamora and whispering in her ear.

"Who is she? Is she your 'connection' that we've been waiting for?" he asks, looking at the woman in front of them.

Gamora nods. "Yes. Or rather his assistant I assume."

They enter the large building and Azaria's eyes widen. The whole place is full of glass cases and many of the cases are filled with exotic looking plants and animals and other creatures. Living creatures! She looked around at the cases, disturbed at what she saw.

"Okay, this isn't creepy at all." She heard Rocket mutter beside her. She smiled at him and turned to the woman when she began talking again.

In an airy and distant sounding voice she said "We house the galaxy's largest collection of fauna, relics, and species of all manner."

Azaria turns and spots a small animal in one of the glass cases. It was a dog from Terra. She grinned and kneeled down in front of it.

"Aww, you're so cute. I wish I could pet you." She cooed at it through the glass. It cocked its head to the side and its tail waged. It stopped though and growled. Azaria turned and saw Rocket growling and glaring at the dog as well. She smirked and stood up.

"C'mon. Quit growling at it." She said softly grabbing his shoulder and pulling him along.

"Hey, he growled at me first." Rocket protested as they continued walking. She chuckled and shook her head, walking slightly ahead and he smiled softly at her. He couldn't stop thinking about what had happened in the bar. He was so stupid to get drunk like that. He was trying to stop but each time he decided he was going to learn to keep it under control, something like this happened again.

He wanted to stop. Mostly because it got them into trouble with a lot of people but he knew the real reason. He wanted to stop for her. For the one person he truly cared about in the whole galaxy. He had just reacted on instinct when he hugged her. He just felt like crying so much, it started to hurt and it was the only thing he thought of doing. The only thing that calmed him down. Yeah he hated when people saw how vulnerable he was but he would have hated it more if Peter or anyone else saw him cry.

The situation wasn't all bad though. It did make him realize something. He just didn't know when to actually say it to her. The voice of the woman brought him out of his thoughts and the group looked to see a man in a long fur coat and white hair.

"I present to you, Taneleer Tivan, the Collector."

The man turns to them, looking over his glasses and walks over to Gamora.

"Oh, my dear Gamora. How wonderful to meet in the flesh." He says in the same airy and distant voice his assistant had. He took Gamora's hand and kisses it.

Gamora brings her hand away and looks at him with a serious expression. "Let's bypass the formalities, Tivan. We have what we discussed."

The Collector looks over to the rest of the group and notices Groot. "What is that thing there?"

"I am Groot." He answers. The Collector slowly walks over to him, his eyes moving over him and looked up to meet his face.

"I never thought I'd meet a Groot. Sir, you must allow me to pay you now so that I may own your carcass. At the moment of your death, of course." He said very serious.

'_Ok, this guy just passed the weirdo level.' _Azaria thought looking at the man in front of them.

"I am Groot." Groot responded, shrugging his shoulders.

Rocket snorted and frowned at Groot. "Why, so he could turn you into a frickin' chair?"

The Collector smirked at Groot "That's your pet?"

"His what?!" Rocket screamed, furious and reached for his gun while the Collector chuckled at his response. Azaria puts a hand on his shoulder and he backed down. Gamora stepped in, looking annoyed.

"Tivan, we have been halfway around the galaxy, retrieving this orb."

"Very well, then." The Collector says sighing. "Let us see what you brought."

Gamora looks at Peter and he nods, taking out the orb from his bag. He steps forward but accidently drops the orb, quickly catching it, any attempt at looking cool gone and shows it to the Collector.

He takes it from him and walks over to a table near them and places the orb on the table, in between a sort of machine on it. He looked up at the group and a small smile grew on his face.

"Oh, my new friends. Before creation itself, there were six singularities." Screens popped up around them, images popping up on the screens. The machine the orb was between began to open it as the Collector continued to talk. "Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots. Infinity Stones. These stones, it seems, can only be brandished by beings of extraordinary strength. Observe."

He pulls a video of a giant being using one of the stones to destroy an entire planet. Azaria's eyes widened at the site. This is what Ronan wanted? She looked over to Gamora and they shared a look, knowing that there was no way they would let Ronan have this thing. Even more so concerning Thanos.

Peter looked equally scared, muttering "There's a little pee coming out of me right now." his eyes never coming off the screen.

When the video ends, a picture of a group of people in a circle holding hands appeared on the screen.

"Once, for a moment, a group was able to share the energy amongst themselves, but even they were quickly destroyed by it." The Collector said. The machine finally finished opening the orb and a small purple stone appeared.

The Collector gazed at it in wonder. "Beautiful." He said, his hands shaking from so much emotion. "Beyond compare."

Rocket rolled his eyes. "Blah, blah, blah. We're all very _fascinated_, whitey." He said mocking the Collectors hands. "But we'd like to get paid."

Azaria send the Collector an apologetic look and he nodded. "How would you like to get paid?"

"What do you think fancy pants? Units!"

"Very well, then."

The Collector walks over to a desk and opens a drawer under it. He pulls out the money but looks back up and sees his assistant moving ever more closer to the stone. She was entranced by the site of it and reached for it.

"Carina. Stand back." The Collector ordered her. She looked at him, a look of pure hatred on her face and screamed.

"I will no longer be your slave!"

"No!" he yelled but was too slow and she grabbed the stone. The moment she grabbed it, the stone triggered an explosion, the stone consuming her and then went on to destroy the building. Groot grabs Rocket and Azaria, running out of the building as it finally exploded.

* * *

Azaria grabbed her head as she stood up. Her body hurt and looked back at the now destroyed building. She looks around and finally finds Rocket and Groot and walks over to them.

"Are you guys alright?" she asks them. Groot nods and Rocket nods as well.

"Yeah. Are you? Nothing broken?" He asked her, pointlessly trying to hide the worry in his voice. She smiles at him.

"I'm fine." They smile at each other, her purple eyes not leaving his maroon ones. Groot just smiling at them from where he was standing. He could read them like an open book. He knew they cared for each other, that they loved each other. He knew it since the day he met them. He kept his mouth shut though, leaving it to them to figure it out.

Gamora and Peter suddenly walk out of the Collectors place.

"How could I think Tivan could contain whatever was within the orb?" She yells.

Rocket and Azaria break the small spell they were put under at that moment and they stand up. Rocket sees the orb in Gamora's hand and his eyes widen.

"Why do you still have it for?" he asks pulling at the fur on his face.

Peter looks at him and glares. "Well what are we gonna do, leave it in there?"

"I can't believe you had that in your purse!" Rocket yells. That thing was in the ship he was in! The ship Azaria was in! No way would he let that thing back on it.

Peter glared some more. "It's not a purse, it's a knapsack!"

Azaria walks up to Peter and Gamora. "We have to bring that to the Nova Corps. There's a chance they can contain it."

Rocket looks at her in disbelief. "Are you kidding me? We're wanted by the Nova Corps.! You know that! Just give it to Ronan!"

Azaria stared at her best friend in the entire galaxy and the person she loved the most in complete betrayal and slight anger and disgust.

"How can you say that?! You just saw what that thing can do! Imagine if Ronan or even Thanos got ahold of that!" she snapped. He looked at her surprised. She had never snapped at him like that.

"Why would we give it to Ronan? So he can destroy the galaxy?" Peter questioned.

"What are you, some Saint all of a sudden? What has the galaxy ever done for you?" Rocket sneered at him "Why would you wanna save it?"

"Because I'm one of the idiots who lives in it!" Peter yelled.

Gamora stepped in and turned Peter to her. "Peter, listen to me. We cannot allow the stone to fall into Ronan's hands. We have to go back to your ship and deliver it to Nova."

"Right, right, okay. I think you're right." Peter answered her. "Or we could give it to somebody who's not going to arrest us, who's really nice for a whole lot of money." At the sound of the word money Gamora face went to one of anger and she shook her head at him. But Peter went on talking. "I think it's a really balance between both of your points of view."

"You're despicable." Gamora spat.

"I…" Peter tried.

"Dishonorable. Faithless!" Gamora yelled and turned to walk away but she stops at the site of Ronan's ships arriving.

"Oh no." She mutters under her breath. The five of them turned to look at the cause of her reaction and their jaws dropped.

"At last! I shall meet my foe and destroy him." Drax screamed at the ships coming to land on the ground, laughing like a mad man.

"You called Ronan?!" Peter yelled in shock.

"Quill!"

They turn to where they heard the scream and see Yondu Udonta and his men turn up as well, walking quickly towards Peter. "Don't you move, boy!"

Peter and Gamora run off, the other three running after them.

Yondu sees them running and screams "Don't you move!" while he pushes the people in his way. "Get out of the way!"

At the same time, Ronan stepped off his ship and Drax waited for him, the knives in his hands raised in the air.

"Ronan the Accuser!"

Ronan walks up to him. "You are the one who transmitted the message?"

Drax glared at him, trembling in anger and hate. "You killed my wife. You killed my daughter!"

The five others find mining pods and go to board three of them.

"What do you think you're doing?" Rocket asks Azaria from his pod.

"What does it look like? I'm getting in a pod." She answered.

He shakes his head, frowning. "Oh no, you're not. It's too dangerous."

"What! C'mon! I can handle flying in a pod. It's not too dangerous." She says back and starts to get into the pod but feels herself being pulled out.

"Groot! No! Stop! Put me down!" she yells and struggles and squirms to escape.

"Groot, stay here with her. Make sure she doesn't get hurt or do anything crazy." Rocket orders him and he nods. "Sorry Azaria. I just wanna protect you. Be back in jiff."

The door to his pod closes and Azaria uselessly screams at the pod that is now taking off and follows Peter's and Gamora's.

"Rocket! Damn it!" Azaria screams, burning in anger. Her hair flares up and the color at the tips turns a dark red. "Groot put me down."

Groot shakes his head and Azaria glares at him.

"Put me down. Now."

Groot sighs and lets her go. She lands on the ground and looks behind her to see Drax fighting against Ronan. And it looked like he was losing. Bad.

"Groot we need to go help him! He'll be killed if we don't." Azaria says to Groot and pleads at him with her eyes.

He looks over and sees Ronan hit Drax with his hammer and he is thrown back, landing with a loud thud. Groot looks back at Azaria and back at Drax.

Sighing he says, "I am… Groot." He reluctantly nods and a grin appears on her face.

"Thanks Groot!" she gives him a quick hug and takes out her blaster from her holder. She runs over to Drax just as he jumps at Ronan and is tossed back to the ground like a doll. She kneels down next to him and grabs his shoulder.

"You alright? Can you stand?" She asks him holding up her blaster and looking at Ronan.

"Yes, but I can take him myself." He says grunting as he gets up to his feet.

Azaria chuckles "Really? You look like you're getting pretty beat up from my point of view."

Drax looks at her for a moment and then shrugs. "Fight if you want. I am in no position to stop you."

"Finally. Time to kick some ass." She grins dangerously "Let's go." And Drax smiles along with her.

She shoots at Ronan as Drax runs at him. Ronan merely dodges her shots and throws a punch at Drax. Drax catches it and tries to kick him but Ronan blocks that as well and tosses him to the side. Azaria throws a punch at him and it connects with his jaw but barely doing any damage. It does catch his attention though and he turns to her.

"Foolish girl. How dare you hit me." And with that, he kicks at her feet, knocking her down and he pulls her up by her throat. She claws at his fingers as his grip tightens but she feels him let go and falls to the ground, gasping for air. She looks up and sees Drax try and stab him with the knives in his hands but Ronan knocks the knives out of them and kicks him right in the stomach. Drax hits one of the walls and Ronan grabs his throat, lifting him up.

"I don't recall killing your family. I doubt I'll remember killing you, either."

Azaria gets back to her feet and aims her blaster at him. She pulls the trigger and it hits Ronan directly. It makes him let Drax go and Ronan turns to her. Her smile falters and she steps back slightly. Ronan walks up to her, his expression dripping in anger.

"You will regret that." He then grabs her by the hair and she screams in pain as he lifts her up. He throws her into a wall, her head connecting with the cement and her vision instantly goes black.


	7. Chapter 7

**Whoa! Two chapters in only one week? Crazy I know but since I was gone for so long, this is my gift to you guys for being so awesome so enjoy! **

***I do not own any of the characters in the story, just my OC and anyone else that is not in the comics.***

* * *

Flashback 22 years…

_Azaria ran down the long white hallway to her mother's room, her light purple hair swinging behind her in her small pony tail. She stopped in front of a big, light blue door and she smiled as she opened it._

_Her smile fell as she looked at her mother in laying in her bed, her father at her side, a syringe in his hand and the needle being pricked into her mother's arm. _

"_Mommy?" Azaria asked her timidly but her gaze still on her father._

"_Oh! Hello dear. Your father is only giving me my medicine. He is just abou-" and she broke out into a coughing fit, her thin figure shaking from the force of the cough. The small handkerchief in her hand was specked with blood drops, something Azaria, while only being five years old, never missed to notice._

_Azaria quickly ran to her mother's bedside and she reached across to grab her hand. "Mommy! Are you okay?" the tips of her pony tail turning a light orange._

_Her mother coughed a couple more times and slowly breathed in and out. "I'm fine honey. Don't worry. That's what this medicine is for. To help me."_

_Azaria looked up at her father as he put away the syringe and 'medicine' bottle in a small black bag. He didn't even look at her, much less acknowledge her even being there. He pushed the red rimmed glasses on his nose back up to his cold grey eyes and looked at his wife._

"_The medicine should take effect in a few moments. Please try not to do much activity, Ariel. The medicine needs you to be completely calm. It's no good if I give it to you and you end up wasting it by playing those stupid and ridiculous games you insist on playing with the girl." _

'_The girl'. That's all she was to him. He probably didn't even remember it was her birthday in a week. Azaria frowned at him, the tips of her hair going from a light orange to a dark purple, small sparks shooting out of them._

_But before she could do anything, the door opened and a man wearing a white suit stepped into the room._

"_Dr. Mantlo. The ship is all ready for departure and the men you chose are ready to leave to Half-World."_

"_Ah! Wonderful. Hopefully they will get back soon and we may begin with the experiment. The institute has been asking for these creatures for a long time and I'll finally get them off my back. Go tell Dr. Giffen that the men are ready to leave. I'm sure he would also like to know about this." _

_The man nodded and stepped out the door._

_He looked back at his wife and smiled. "This won't take very long. I will be back on time for the next dose in four hours." _

_He then walks out of the room, the door slamming shut with a loud bang behind him._

Present day

Azaria's eyes shot open when the feeling of air filled her lungs and she coughed, yellow liquid covering her entire body and hair.

"I am Groot."

She looks up and sees Groot looking at her with a worried expression.

"Thanks Groot." And she slowly sits up, wincing slightly. Her eyes widen and she looks around frantically. "What happened? Where's Ronan?"

"He is gone. He left after he threw us into that pool of yellow liquid." Drax responds.

Azaria turns to him and she relaxes. She runs a hand through her hair and cringes in disgust. "Well, that's going to be a bitch to wash out." Muttering under her breath.

Suddenly, one of the small pods from before lands in front of them and Rocket steps out of it, clearly furious.

"Blasted idiot. They're all idiots!"

"What happened? Where's Quill and Gamora?" Azaria asks him, looking for the other pods.

Rocket shakes his head. "Quill just got himself captured!" he then turns to Drax and he points accusingly at him. "None of this would have ever happened if you didn't try to single-handedly take on a frickin' army!"

Azaria opens her mouth to say something but Drax speaks up before her.

"You're right. I was a fool. All the anger, all the rage, was just to cover my loss."

Groot places a hand on his shoulder in comfort and Azaria's eyes shone in sympathy.

Rocket stared at them in disbelief but regains himself and shakes his head. "Oh, boo-hoo-hoo. 'My wife and child are dead.'" he mocks.

Groot gasps at what Rocket said and Azaria sends him a glare.

"Oh, I don't care if it's mean! Everyone's got dead people! Azaria, c'mon so do you."

Azaria stands up in a millisecond and sends him a death glare. "Don't you dare bring my mom into this."

"Yeah, well, that gives him no excuse to get everyone else dead along the way!" He turns to Groot and motions his head for him to follow. "Come on, Groot. Ronan has the stone. The only chance we got is to get to the other side of the universe as fast as we can and maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to live full lives before that whack-job ever gets there."

Groot gets to his feet and shakes his head. "I am Groot."

Rocket turns to him "Save them? How?"

"I am Groot." He says shrugging his shoulders.

"Rocket they're the only friends we've ever had. We have to help them." Azaria says stepping forward.

Rocket sighs in frustration. "I know! I know! But there's an army of Ravagers around them. And there's only three of us!"

Drax rises to his feet and stands next to Groot. "Four."

Rocket growls in anger, turns and starts kicking the ground.

"UUUUGGGHHHH! You're makin' me – beat – up - grass!"

Azaria giggles and walks over to Rocket, placing a hand on his head, rubbing the fur and ears. He stiffens, but relaxes.

"Well, we're all going. Now what's the plan?"

* * *

"This is never going to work. It's the stupidest plan I have ever heard." Azaria frowns at Rocket from the pilot's seat next to her.

"It'll work. Trust me." Rocket says to her as her flies the Milano to Yondu's ship. "So, mind explainin' the yellow goo all over ya?"

"Oh, um, that's nothing. Just slipped into a pool full of that stuff." Azaria said, trying to come up with her best excuse.

"Mm hmm. Mind telling me the _real_ reason? You're a terrible liar."

Azaria sighed. Here comes the lecture. "I may have gotten into the fight that Drax was in against Ronan. And he may or may not have tried to drown me by throwing me into the pool." She muttered quietly, so quietly she hoped he didn't hear. Not a chance.

"You what! Azaria, the reason I didn't let you get into one of the pods is because I didn't want you gettin' hurt! Not so you could help some whack-job fight some psychopath!" Rocket said sending her a glare.

"Well, what was I supposed to do? Just let Drax get beat up or possibly killed? I'm not ten anymore Rocket, I can take care of myself." Azaria huffed, folding her arms over her chest.

It was Rocket's turn to sigh and he turned to her. "I know, but I just can't help but worry. I… well… care a lot about you. I'd die before I let anything happen to you."

There was no way she could stay mad at him after he said that. She felt her cheeks flush and she looked down, a smile on her face. "Fine. You win."

They reach the large ship and Azaria helps Drax put on the space suit and helmet. She hands him the large gun and he climbs on top of the Milano.

Rocket shoots once at the ship to get their attention and then a second time to make sure they were all listening. He pushes the button for the ship speakers. Azaria rolls her eyes when he begins talking.

"Attention, idiots. The lunatic on top of this craft is holding a Hadron Enforcer. A weapon of my own design." He says, a proud look on his face when he said that.

"If you don't hand over our companions _now_, he's gonna tear your ship a new one. A very big new one!"

Azaria bites her bottom lip slightly from nerves and looks out the window at the ship hoping Peter would answer.

"I'm giving you to the count of five. Five, four, three…"

The sound of Peter's voice made Azaria let out a sigh.

"ROCKET! It's me, for God's sakes! We figured it out! We're fine!"

Rocket leaned back in his seat and answered. "Oh, hey, Quill. What's going on?" he then turned to Azaria and gave her a smug smirk. She pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head.

* * *

"You call that 'figured it out'?" Rocket asked, once the four of them had joined Peter and Gamora on Yondu's ship. "We're gonna rob the guys who just beat us senseless?"

Azaria had to admit, Rocket was right. Peter's suggestion was crazy.

Peter rolls his eyes and glares at him. "Oh, you want to talk about senseless? How about trying to save us by blowing us up?"

Rocket folded his arms. "We were only going to blow you up if they didn't turn you over!"

"And how on Earth were they gonna turn us over when you only gave them to a count of five?" Peter raised his hand and showed the number five with his fingers to emphasize on how small the number was.

Rocket continued to glare at Peter. "Well we didn't have time to work out the _minutiae_ of the plan. This is what we get for acting altruistically!"

Groot nodded. "I am Groot."

"They are ungrateful." Rocket agreed.

Gamora frowned and stepped in. "What's important now is we get the Ravagers' army to help us save Xandar."

Azaria rolled her eyes. "What? So we can give the Stone to Yondu who's just gonna sell it to someone even worse?"

"We'll figure that part out later." Peter said running a hand through his hair.

"We have to stop Ronan." Gamora said simply, making it now the groups' biggest priority.

"How?" Rocket asked.

Peter looked at him and nodded. "I have a plan."

Rocket gave him a look saying he did not believe him for one minute. "You've got a plan?"

"Yes."

Rocket frowned. "First of all, you're copying me from when I said I had a plan."

"No, I'm not." Peter frowned as well and scoffed. "People say that all the time, it's not that unique of a thing to say ."

"Secondly, I don't even believe you have a plan." Rocket said sitting up straighter and looking at Peter straight in the eye.

"I have part of a plan!" Peter yelled, as if saying that would make it better.

Drax looked at him. "What percentage of a plan do you have?"

Gamora glared at him. "You don't get to ask questions after the nonsense you pulled on Knowhere."

"I just saved Quill!" Drax said, offended that doing that hadn't redeemed him.

"We've already established that you destroying the ship that I'm on is not saving me." Peter said.

Drax looked at him confused. "When did we establish it?"

Peter gaped at him. "Like three seconds ago!"

Drax just shook his head and folded his arms on his chest "I wasn't listening, I was thinking of something else."

"Oh man…" Azaria sighed in frustration, her face in her hands.

"She's right," Rocket says pointing to Gamora and looking at Drax "you don't get an opinion." He then turns to Peter. "What percentage?"

Peter rubs his neck, shrugs and mumbles "I don't know, twelve percent."

"Twelve percent?" Rocket says, and stares at him before breaking out in laughter. Peter glares at him and shakes his head and scoffs at him.

"That's a fake laugh."

Rocket immediately stops laughing and glared back at Peter. "It's real!"

"Totally fake." Peter says still shaking his head.

"That is the most real, authentic, hysterical laugh of my entire life because that is not a plan." Rocket says, folding his arms.

Gamora nods "It's barely a concept."

Peter looks at her, looking betrayed. "You're taking their side?"

"I am Groot."

Rocket looks at him. "So what if it's better than eleven percent? What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

Peter pats Groot on the back and smiles at him. "Thank you, Groot. Thank you. See?" he says turning to everyone else "Groot's the only one of you who has a clue."

Peter then turns to look at Groot and finds him eating a leaf that had sprouted on his shoulder. Peter sighs and shakes his head while Azaria smiles and Rocket chuckles at the sight.

"Guys. Come on." Peter says looking around at everyone, his expression extremely serious. "Yondu is gonna be here in two seconds. He expects to hear this big plan of ours. I need your help. I look around at us, you know what I see? Losers."

The group looks at him in confusion and Azaria raises an eyebrow. Peter sees his mistake and quickly fixes it.

"I mean, like, folks who have lost stuff. And we have. Man, we have. All of us. Our homes, our families, normal lives." Peter looked at each of them as he said this. "And, usually, life takes more than it gives, but not today. Today, it's given us something. It has given us a chance."

Azaria looks up at Peter. "To do what?"

"To give a shit." Peter makes eye contact with her and then looks around at everyone else who were all silent. "For once, not run away. I, for one, am not gonna stand by and watch as Ronan wipes out billions of innocent lives."

"But, Quill," Rocket lifts up his gaze to Peter "stopping Ronan, it's impossible. You're asking us to die."

Azaria looks over to him and sees his expression dark and serious. Something she rarely saw.

Peter sighs in defeat and his hands fall to his sides "Yeah, I guess I am. I…" he turns from the group and drops his gaze to the ground.

After a moment of silence, Gamora speaks up, catching Peter's attention.

"Quill. I have lived most of my life surrounded by my enemies." She rises to her feet and gives him a small smile. "I will be grateful to die among my friends."

Azaria stared at Gamora surprised. She then shrugs her shoulders and stands up as well. "Well, I may die doing this but I'll get to see my mom afterwards and have one hell of a story to tell her." A smile appears on her face and Peter and Gamora smile back at her.

Drax stands up as well and turns to Peter. "You are an honorable man, Quill. I will fight beside you. And in the end, see my wife and daughter again."

Groot gets up onto his feet and nods at them. "I am Groot."

They all look at Rocket, waiting for him to join them and he looks around, finally sighing and gives in. "Oh, what the hell. I don't got that long a lifespan, anyway."

Rocket gets up and stands on his seat. "Now I'm standing. You all happy?" he says a frown on his face and his arms crossed over his chest. "We're all standing up now. Bunch of jackasses, standing in a circle."

Azaria breaks out in laughter and the frown on Rocket's face turns into a grin as he stares at her while she laughs at his remark.

'_I think… I think I might be…' _Rocket thinks as he watches Azaria's laughter die down and she giggles quietly. _'I think… yeah, I think I might be in love with her.'_

* * *

**Well, hope you guys liked it. Please leave a review and any suggestions of what I should do or change. They really help and I want all of you guys to be happy. **** Other than that, I'll see you all next time! **


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys! I'm back with a new chapter and sadly we are almost done with the story. But for now, just enjoy the chapter and story. **** Hope you like it!**

* * *

One of Yondu's men entered the room and called for them to explain the big plan they had. Peter took a deep breath and motioned for them to follow him.

They entered a large room with screens set up in a circle in the middle. Gamora steps into the circle and pulls up a picture of the infinity stone inside the orb that Ronan now had.

"This is what is inside of the orb. It's called an Infinity Stone. The stone reacts to anything organic. The bigger the target, the bigger the power surge." Gamora explained to the large crew. Peter steps next to her and nods with a serious expression.

"All Ronan's gotta do is touch the stone to the planet's surface and zap. All plants, animals, Nova Corps." He said looking at everyone there.

"Everything will die." Gamora added in.

Peter stepped forward and pointed at the screen that had a picture of Ronan's ship and Xandar. "So Ronan does not make the surface. Rocket will lead a team to blow a hole in the Dark Aster's starboard hull. Then our craft and Yondu's will enter."

One of Yondu's crew members, his second in command, Kraglin steps forward. "Won't there be hundreds of Sakaaran soldiers inside?"

"I think of Sakaaran as paper people." Drax mutters and Kraglin grins at him, giving him a friendly punch in the shoulder. Drax, not understanding the jester, gives him a death glare. Azaria puts her hand on his shoulder and whispers in his ear.

"It's just his way of being playful and that he liked your comment."

Drax looks at her and nods, backing off. They turn back to Gamora who had continued to speak.

"Once they know we're on board, Ronan will isolate himself behind impenetrable security doors on deck. Which I can disable by dismantling the power source." She said and Peter pointed to another picture on one of the screens.

"We'll make it to the flight deck, and I'll use the Hadron Enforcer to kill Ronan."

One of the crew members begins to pass out a type of device that looked like the orb. Gamora explained what they were for. "Once Ronan is dead, we will retrieve the stone. Use these devices to contain it."

Peter continues to talk once they are passed out. "I'll contact one of the Nova officers who arrested us. Hopefully, they'll believe we're there to help."

Rocket steps up next to Peter and faces the crew. "There's one more thing we need to complete the plan." He points up to one of Yondu's men who had a robotic eye. "That guy's eye…"

Azaria pinches the bridge of her nose and chuckles under her breath.

Peter quickly steps forward and shakes his head frantically, waving his arms in front of him. "No! No, we don't need that guy's eye."

"No, seriously, I need it! It's important to me." Rocket says, covering his mouth to keep from laughing.

Azaria continues to chuckle as they leave to change and she heads for the showers.

* * *

After she washed out all the yellow goo, Azaria stepped out of the shower and quickly dried her hair and got dressed. As she zipped up the maroon colored uniform, Rocket walked past the room, stopping and walked back when he saw she was in there.

"There you are. Hurry up we gotta get goin'. Peter's got the Milano all ready and their just waiting for you." He said leaning in the door frame with his huge gun.

Azaria looked at him and nodded. "Ok. I'm all done anyways."

"Here." Rocket said to her. He tossed her a blaster that looked different than the one she had before and was slightly bigger. "Thought you might need it." He added quietly not meeting her eyes.

Azaria caught it and looked at the new weapon. The metal felt cool and smooth in her hands and she smiled. "Thanks Rocky. It's great."

Rocket looked down shyly. God, did he love when she called him that. Yeah it was cutesy and he would shoot the head off of anybody who chose to call him that but he loved how it sounded when she said it.

"I, um, made just now with some spare parts from your old blaster and some of these Ravegers' guns. It's more powerful than the old one and it'll be able to take out a Kree soldier in one shot." He said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Azaria looked down at her new blaster and grinned. "Awesome. Well, c'mon then. Let's get going." She was a few steps out of the room when Rocket's voice stopped her.

"Wait!"

She turned around and looked at him confused. "Yeah? What is it?"

"Uh…" _Damn it, I really should have thought this through _Rocket thought. He looked at her and sighed. He wanted to tell her everything that he felt, everything that would spin around in his head when he looked at her, when he thought about her but the words wouldn't come. He just looked at her and said softly. "Just, uh, be careful ok? I want you to come back in one piece. Who else is going to keep me and Groot in check?"

Azaria looked at him and gave him a small smile. "Of course I'll come back. Don't worry." She flashes him a grin and runs off to find the rest of the group.

_You idiot! That was your chance and you blew it! _Rocket sighs and shakes his head as starts to walk to his own ship.

* * *

"Okay, everybody ready? There's no going back once we get on that ship." Peter says to them just before they get into the Milano. The rest of the group nods as Azaria bites her lip.

_Okay, here we go. We're going to fight one of the most dangerous and crazy guys in the whole galaxy. We might die. _Azaria's eyes widened at the thought realizing something. _Holy shit, we might die! _

"Hold on! I gotta do something first." Azaria says and runs off, Peter yelling after her confused.

She runs over to where Rocket's ship was and sure enough she found him just about to get inside.

"Rocket!"

He stops and turns to her, his expression surprised. "Azaria? What are you doing? What is it?"

Azaria doesn't answer his questions and walks up to the ladder, climbing up and meeting him at eye level.

"Be careful, alright? I don't know what I would do without you. You're my best friend." She said, her expression worried.

Rocket felt his heart drop slightly when she said 'friend' but shook it off and smirked. "Who's worried now, huh?"

Seeing she only smiled slightly but still looked worried, he stopped smirking and looked her straight in the eyes.

"Look, I'll be fine. There's no way some Ronan's idiot pilots will be able to take me out. Don't worry 'cause that's my job."

Azaria looked at him and shut her eyes, letting out a breath. _Well, it's now or never _she thought and she grabbed Rocket by the shoulders and pressed her lips onto his.

Rocket's eyes went as wide as saucers and he froze. _Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! She's kissing me! She's actually kissing me! _Rocket stood there, having no idea how to react, being taken by surprise. _Don't just stand there like a moron! Kiss her back! _ His thoughts screamed at him and before he knew it, his eyes slowly closed shut and his hands cupped her face, kissing her back, pouring out all of his emotions he had kept inside into it.

The two, after a few minutes, finally separated and looked at each other, panting slightly. They both smiled at each other, Rocket finally speaking.

"Well, that will definitely make me come back."

Azaria giggles and Rocket chuckles until they hear Peter scream for Azaria to hurry up.

"I guess I better get going then." Azaria says quietly still smiling.

"Yeah." Rocket answers simply, smiling as well.

Azaria gives him a quick hug and she slides down the ladder of the ship. She runs back to the Milano, Peter looking slightly annoyed. "You happy now?"

Azaria walks up the ramp and into the Milano. "Yes. Very." She answers and straps herself in.

Peter sits down in the pilots' seat and starts up the ship.

"This is a terrible plan." Gamora mutters and Peter smirks at her.

"Hey, you're the one who said you wanted to die among friends." Peter said, making Gamora throw him a glare and Azaria laughed.

* * *

_Okay, stay calm… just breathe. _Azaria thought as she squeezed the arms of her seat and looked out the window of the Milano and saw them getting closer to Ronan's ship. She felt something grab her shoulder and looked up to meet Groot's gaze and smiled at his attempt to comfort her.

They then felt the ship shake and saw Ronan's fleet of ships come at them as they went under the wall of fire on the Dark Astor. They see the Ravegers' ships successfully blast a hole in Ronan's ship and they hear Rocket scream through the Milano's intercom.

"**QUILL! YONDU! NOW!**"

They both flew towards the opening but Yondu's ship was shot down before he could get there.

"Aw, hell! I'm going down, Quill! No more games with me, boy! I'll see at the end of this!" they hear his voice through the intercom. Ronan's fleet continues to relentlessly come at them, the Milano shaking from the shots fired.

Gamora leans forwards and pushes the button for the communicator. "There are too many of them, Rocket! We'll never make it up there!"

Just as one of the Kree ships were about to come at them, they are shot down by a ship next to them and Azaria looks out the window. Her expression turns to one of surprise when she sees who it was.

The Nova Corps!

"**Peter Quill, this is Denarian Saal of the Nova Corps.**" The voice said through the intercom. Azaria recognized the voice as the man who had gone through their records when they were arrested. "**For the record, I advised against trusting you here.**"

Peter grinned. "They got my 'dick' message!"

"You're _what_!" Azaria yelled while Gamora quickly shot her head to look at Peter.

"**Prove me wrong.**" Denarian said as a whole fleet of Nova Corps officers came flying in to help in the fight.

Peter manages to get through all the ships and finally manages to land, or well crash, the Milano inside the Dark Astor.

"Yes!" Drax laughs and cheers.

Azaria relaxes her death grip that she had on the arms of her seat and sighs in relief. "We're still alive. For now. Great."

Gamora laughs lightly as well and turns to Peter. "We're just like Kevin Bacon."

Peter turns to her and smiles. He unbuckles himself from his seat and gets up. "Alright. Let's go."

The four of them walked through the large ship, following Gamora to where Ronan was. Azaria had to squint her eyes to try and see where they were going, the place being almost completely dark.

"I can barely see." Drax muttered as they walked.

Azaria suddenly bumped into Groot who had stopped walking. She was about to ask him what was wrong when he only winked at her lifted his hand into the air, releasing glowing lights from his fingertips and palm.

The group stared in awe at the firefly-like particles in the air and the whole hallway filled up with light.

Azaria grinned up at Groot. "I love it when you do that…" she murmured. Groot smiled at her and they continued to walk. She had seen him do this a few other times, when she couldn't sleep or only when she would beg him to do it on her birthday. She felt so happy when he would. He could just make people feel that way without even trying.

Drax looked around in complete amazement. "When did you learn to do that?" he said quietly.

"I'm pretty sure the answer is 'I am Groot'." Peter muttered looking quite amazed as well.

Gamora continued to walk ahead of them and turned to look at them. "The flight deck is three hundred meters this way."

They all nodded and walked in silence until Drax broke it when he spoke up a small smile on his face.

"I want you all to know that I am grateful for your acceptance after my blunders. It is pleasing to once again have… friends." He said, smiling fully now. He then turned to Peter. "You, Quill, are my friend."

"Thanks." Peter said, sounding slightly sarcastic.

"This dumb tree and purple-haired girl, you are my friends."

Groot grunted his response while Azaria looked at Drax. "Um, sure. Thanks."

Drax lastly looked over to Gamora. "And this green whore, she, too…"

"Oh, you _must stop!_" she snapped at him.

But when she turned around to keep on walking, a woman with blue skin blocked their path. She glared at Gamora and she glared back.

"Gamora, look at what you have done." The woman sneered. "You have always been weak. You stupid, traitorous…"

She was suddenly cut off when Drax fired a shot at her and she was hit directly, flying back with the force of the shot.

The group stared at him with wide eyes, thrown off by his actions and he only lowers the weapon, glaring at the place where the woman was standing.

"Nobody talks to my friends like that."

Azaria pats him on the back. "Nice, Drax."

"Head to the flight deck. I'll shut down the power to the security doors." Gamora says to them, walking ahead.

"You sure you won't need any help?" Azaria says stepping forward.

Gamora smiles slightly and shakes her head. "No. I can handle it." And with that, she walked through into the room in front of them, leaving them to fight with Ronan's goons.

* * *

As they walk to the flight deck, they stop when they see Korath the Pursuer and Ronan's crew.

"Star-lord." Korath acknowledges Peter, while he grins at the sound of his little nickname.

"_Finally._"

After that, not much was uttered with both groups attacking each other at the same time.

Azaria rose up her blaster and shot three of Ronan's soldiers that ran at her and quickly spun around to catch one behind her and gave him a swift kick in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. She quickly shot two more guards that were behind him and shot the one that she had kicked who was getting up.

Azaria felt someone spin her around and she raised up her blaster but the same hand quickly clutched her throat, catching her off guard.

She stared face to face with Korath, who looked livid. "You and your team will never make it to Ronan." He threw her aside and she hit the wall with a thud. Azaria groaned but was left with no time to recover when Korath lifted her up by her jacket and raised his knife in the air.

Azaria shut her eyes for the blow to come but instead she fell to the ground and opened her eyes to see Drax grab Korath and slams him into the wall a few feet away from her. Azaria stares in surprise and slight horror as Drax grabbed part of his head and began to rip it off.

"Finger to the throat means death." Drax growled at him as he finally kills him and drops Korath to the floor. Drax turns to Peter and grins.

"Metaphor."

Peter stares at him, surprised, but smiles weakly. "Yeah, sorta."

Drax looks over to Azaria and holds out a hand to help her up. Azaria stared at him, her mouth agape but took his hand anyways and was pulled to her feet.

"Uh, thanks… for, um, helping me." She says still shocked at what she had just seen.

Drax nods and they turn to see more of Ronan's crew coming at them.

"Aw, crap." Azaria breathes out.

But before they could react, Groot steps in front of them and stabs half of the soldiers, then using them to smash the rest. After he finishes, he pulls his arm back and turns to the three of them, a grin on his face practically saying 'I did good, right?'

Azaria just chuckles and nods at him. "Yeah, you did a good job, buddy."

* * *

They quickly make it to the flight deck but they find the door still shut. More of Ronan's men reach them and as the four of them hold them off, they hear Rocket's voice through Peter's communicator.

"**Quill, you gotta hurry. The city's evacuated, but we're getting our asses kicked down here.**"

Peter grabs the communicator and tosses it to Azaria.

"Here! Talk to your little boyfriend. I'll watch your back." Peter yelled to her over the noise.

Azaria glared at him but answered the small machine anyways. "Rocket, Gamora hasn't opened the door! We're just waiting for her."

They finally get rid of all of Ronan's men, for the time being, and they all give a sigh of relief when they see Gamora open the door to the flight deck.

The five of them enter the large room and Ronan turns to face them, a smirk on his face when he sees Peter take out the Hadron Enforcer and aims it at him. Peter, without hesitating, shoots Ronan.

They all smile when they see the shot had connected with him.

"You did it!" Drax cheered.

But as the cloud of smoke cleared up around him, their smiles fell. There Ronan stood looking like the shot had zero effect on him. He grins evilly and turned his hammer at them, sending them flying to the side.

Drax is the first to get up and glares at Ronan, rushing towards him.

"Drax, no!" Azaria screams after him but her warning goes unheard as Ronan stops him and grabs his throat, lifting him up.

"I was mistaken," he sneered at him, gripping his throat tighter. "I do remember your family. Their screams were pitiful. I…"

Before Ronan could finish, a ship comes crashing into the bridge and went straight to Ronan.

Peter quickly tackled Drax out of the way and Groot grabbed Azaria, moving out of the way before the ship hit any of them.

Azaria groaned as she sat up. "Ugh….. everyone alright?" she looked over to the ship that had crashed into the bridge and saw Peter pull an unconscious Rocket out of the ship. Azaria felt her heart stop and she stood up, rushing over to Peter.

"Oh God, is he… is he…" she tried to ask if he was alright but her voice quivered and broke too much to speak properly.

Peter seemed to understand and nodded. "Yeah. He's fine." He handed Rocket over to her and she held him close to her, just like so many years ago. She shut her eyes as the large ship began to break and fall apart even more. Azaria knelt down with the rest of her group of friends and she felt tears to slowly fall.

_That's it. We're going to die. We're actually going to die. _She opened her eyes and looked around at everyone else and back to Rocket, softly stroking his fur. _Well, mom, here I come._

Azaria suddenly hears creaking and shifting behind her and she looks up behind her.

"Groot? Buddy? What are you doing?" her voice cracking.

Groot only gave her a sad looking smile and saw as his arms and branches began to surround them. She looked around and back at him, her tears falling more steadily now, understanding what he was doing.

Rocket stirred in Azaria's arms and his eyes slowly opened. Azaria looked down at him and he looked back up at her. He frowned when he saw her silently crying and looked around. Seeing all the braches surrounding them, he quickly figured out what Groot was doing and stumbled over to him.

"No, Groot! You can't, you'll die." He moaned, his eyes brimming up with tears. "Why are you doing this? Why?"

Groot softly reached over to him with a small vine and wiped away his tears with a small smile. Azaria grabbed Rocket's hand and he turned to her and gripped it more tightly. Her eyes widen when she hears Groot speak to them.

"_We_… are… Groot." He whispered to them softly as the ship crashed onto the ground.

* * *

**I cried so much when I wrote this. So many feelings hit me. D,X But here it is. Hope you liked it. One more chapter to go and I have to let this story go. I almost don't want to finish it because I've gotten so attached to it. Almost. Anyways, please leave a review! It makes me sooooooo happy when you guys leave reviews! Other than that, I will see you all next time! Bye! :D **


	9. Chapter 9-FINAL CHAPTER

**I won't lie to you; I did cry a lot while writing this chapter. I've gotten attached to this story. I feel so sad to have to wrap it up but I got to or else you guys will come after me with torches and pitchforks, angry that I didn't finish it. So here you go. The last chapter. Hope you guys like it.**

* * *

"_Oooh child, things are gonna get easier. Oooh child, things are gonna get brighter..." _

Azaria opened her eyes slowly when her ears caught the sound of music. She groaned and winced in pain as she sat up.

"Damn it, I think something's broken. That is definitely not good." She muttered. Azaria looked around and saw the entire Dark Aster completely destroyed, concrete, sticks and twigs covering the ground. Her heart broke when she remembered about Groot. She heard a crying sound and turned to see Rocket bent over on his knees clutching a stick.

Azaria got up, holding her abdomen and walked over to him. She knelt down and placed a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her, tears in his eyes and looked back down at the stick in his hands.

"I called him an idiot." He said his voice cracking.

"He knows you weren't trying to be mean." She said quietly. He turned to her and hugged her, crying softly into her shirt. Azaria hugged back and she closed her eyes, feeling like crying herself.

Rocket's ears twitched and they separated when they heard movement behind them. Azaria's eyes widened when she saw who had come out of the ship's wreckage.

"Ronan!" she gasped and Rocket's face turns to one of pure hatred.

"You killed Groot!" he screamed and ran at him.

Azaria tried to grab him but he was too fast. "Rocket, no don't-!"

Ronan only frowned and used his hammer with the infinity stone to throw Rocket aside as if he was nothing.

"ROCKET!" Azaria screamed and rushed over to him. "Oh my God, Rocket. Are you alright?" She said as she gently lifted him up.

"Yeah…" Rocket winced but glared at Ronan as he began to speak.

"Behold! Your Guardians of the Galaxy!" he bellowed to the citizens that had gathered around the wreckage. As he said this, Azaria looked next to her and saw the Hadron Enforcer, though slightly broken. She nudged Rocket and he looked to her.

"Look." She whispered and pointed to the weapon. He looked to where she pointed and his eyes lit up. He nodded and moved over to quickly fix the machine. Drax saw and Azaria looked at him, understanding passing between them and he looked over to Peter who also saw what Rocket was doing. While all this, Ronan continued to talk.

"What fruit have they wrought? Only that my father and his father shall finally know vengeance. People of Xandar, the time has come to rejoice and renounce your paltry gods! Your salvation is at hand!"

But just as Ronan raised up his hammer to use the stone once more, Peter stands up and starts to sing. "Ooh-oo child, things are gonna get easier. Ooh-oo child, things'll get brighter." He sang. Ronan stared at him, completely confused as Peter pointed at him.

"You listen to these words." Peter said and he continued to sing. "Ooh-oo child, things are gonna get easier. Ooh-oo child, things'll get brighter. Now bring it down hard!" Peter then starts to dance as he keeps on singing. "Someday, we'll get it together and we'll get it…"

"What are you doing?" Ronan stared at Peter as if he was crazy.

'_Well, I don't blame him. He does look stupid.' _ Azaria thought as she watched Peter dance and sing.

Peter nodded at him. "Dance-off, bro. Me and you." He turned to Gamora and held his hand out to her. "Gamora."

Gamora shook her head frantically and Peter took his hand back.

"Subtle. Take it back." He said, shrugging his shoulders. Peter continues to dance as Rocket and Drax got up, the Hadron Enforcer finished. Azaria stood up as well and smirked at Ronan. He had no idea what they were doing, completely distracted by Peter.

"What _are_ you doing?" Ronan asked, starting to look annoyed.

Peter grinned. "I'm distracting you, you big turd blossom."

Ronan quickly turns to Drax and Rocket as Rocket connects the two wires to fire the weapon and they fire at the hammer. The shot destroys the hammer and the infinity stone flies out of it. Peter reacts quickly and jumps to catch it.

Azaria steps forward. "No! Peter!" but is too late as Peter grabs the stone and the power and energy begins to consume him. He screams in pain and Gamora stumbles over to him.

"Take my hand, Peter." She screamed at him, "Take my hand!"

Peter stared at her as if remembering something and grabs her hand. The energy from the stone begins to consume Gamora as well. Azaria struggled to reach her but finally made it and grabbed her hand, the energy filling her as well. Drax forced himself over as well and grabs onto Peter's shoulder and Rocket grabs onto Drax's finger, the five of them struggling to hold in all the power and energy of the stone.

Ronan stared at them in surprise and rage. "You're mortal! How?"

Peter looked at him. "You said it yourself, bitch. We're the Guardians of the Galaxy." Peter opens his hand and released the power of the stone at Ronan. All the energy took over Ronan's body and in seconds, the stone completely destroyed him.

Azaria reached quickly into her pocket and slammed the case of the orb over the stone, containing in its power.

Peter smiles weakly at her and Azaria hands him the orb. Peter turns to Gamora and smiles at her just as Yondu and his men show up.

"Well, well, well. Quite the light show." He chuckles and walks in front of Peter. "Ain't this sweet. But you got some business to attend to before all the nookie-nookie starts." He said as he saw how Peter had smiled at Gamora.

Gamora looked at Peter in shock "Peter, you can't." she said sounding desperate.

"Peter." Azaria murmured, her expression with the same desperation as Gamora.

"You gotta reconsider this, Yondu." Peter told him. "I don't know who you're selling this to, but the only way the universe can survive is if you give it to the Nova Corps."

Yondu only frowned and whistled, a small arrow flying out of his pants pocket. The arrow floated in front of Peter's face and Peter's eyes widened.

"I may be pretty as an angel, but I sure as hell ain't one. Hand it over, son." Yondu says, holding out his hand.

Peter looks at his hand and then the orb and reluctantly gives it to Yondu, who laughs and turns to leave when Peter stops him.

"Yondu."

He slowly turns to face Peter again and Peter looks at him, serious with a small glimmer of worry in his eyes. "Do not open that orb. You know that, right? You've seen what it does to people."

Yondu only chuckles to himself and walks off to his ship.

Azaria stares at Peter. "How could you… how could you give him the orb?"

Peter looks at her and gives her a small smile. "I know. I am in deep trouble. Because he is gonna be so pissed when he realizes I switched the orb on him."

Azaria grins and Gamora chuckles and grabs his arm softly. "He was gonna kill you, Peter."

"Oh, I know." Peter says sighing. "But he was about the only family I had."

Gamora smiles at him. "No. He wasn't."

Azaria looked between them and continued to grin as she pats Peter's shoulder. "Well, I just leave you two alone then." She gives him a small wink and Peter sends her a glare as she walks over to Rocket who was still knelt over Groot's pile of twigs.

She sits down next to him and reaches over and grabs his hand. He stiffens for about a second but relaxes and squeezes her hand back. She glanced over to him and saw he was still looking extremely depressed and was about to say something when Drax came over and sat down on Rocket's other side.

Drax looked at her and she gave him a small smile. Drax nodded in return and looked down at Rocket. Seeing the state he was in, Drax lifted his hand and began stroking the fur on Rocket's head to comfort him.

This time, Rocket sat up straight and his ears twitched, his body completely stiff. After a few seconds, Rocket gave in and relaxed. Azaria stared at him for a minute and then smiled.

Azaria began to stand up but fell back down when she gave a small yell of pain and clutched her abdomen. Rocket and Drax looked over to her with a worried expression and Rocket stood up, moving over to her.

"Azaria. You alright, sweetheart?" Rocket asked her, worry dripping off of the words.

She smiled at the sound of what he called her, but as she was about to respond, she felt as if someone was stabbing her with a knife where her hand was clutching.

"Here, let me see." Rocket muttered and moved her hand. Her palm was completely red and a patch in her shirt was soaked in blood.

"Holy shit! Azaria, we gotta get you to a hospital." He gasped and stood up.

Azaria shook her head. "Rocket, I'm fine. It's nothing, just a little cut." She winced and fell back down when she tried to get up again.

Rocket frowned as Drax walked over to them. "No you're not _fine_. We need to get you to a hospital."

"He's right. You are bleeding quite a lot. You need medical assistance." Drax stated when he saw her wound.

"I'm fine god damn it!" Azaria said stubbornly and for a third time attempted to get up onto her feet. She finally managed to stand up but only seconds later, Drax had to rush over to her to catch her.

The pain in her rib cage was excruciating. It felt as if someone was trying to cut out her stomach from just a tiny paper cut and god did it burn. Azaria saw her vision become blurry and she only heard the people around her muffled. She shut her eyes tightly as another wave of pain washed over.

The last thing she remembered before she blacked out was Drax handing her off to a paramedic and hearing Rocket argue with another about letting him ride with her in the ambulance.

* * *

Azaria opened her eyes as she heard a soft beeping sound next to her. She blinked a few times to clear up her vision and she began to sit up when a voice stopped her from doing so.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on, not so fast. You're still healing."

She turned to where she heard the voice and smiled when she saw Rocket in the door way. She slowly eased herself back down and took in her surroundings. She was in a white hospital room and she had bandages wrapped around her abdomen. Her face turned to one of confusion and she turned to Rocket.

"What happened? I don't remember anything that went on after getting into that ambulance." She said.

Rocket chuckled. "Well, you gave us quite a scare. Turns out you broke two ribs when Ronan's ship crashed and when we were all holding the infinity stone, you gave yourself a huge cut with one of the ribs. You lost a lot of blood so you need to take it easy."

Azaria nodded and looked at him with a sad expression. "How are you holding up? You know… about what happened to…" she didn't want to finish, knowing he would get what she was talking about.

He looked a little sad at the mention of Groot but a small smile came on his face. "I'm alright. They told me that he would grow back so that's good. It'll take a while though." He walked to her bed and left a pile of clothes for her at the end of it. "These are for you."

Azaria looked at them with a smile. "Thanks, Rocky."

Rocket gave her a smile as well. "The rest of us are waiting outside. The doctors said you could leave but they said not to go too fast. Don't want you opening anything up." He then walked up next to her and leaned over, placing a kiss onto her cheek and walking out of the room.

She felt herself blush and smiled at the gesture. Azaria slowly sat up and reached across the bed to grab the blue Nova Corps uniform. She carefully put on the uniform and left to join the rest.

* * *

Peter stared completely amazed and surprised at Corpsman Dey as they told him the new information they found about him.

"Why would you even know this?"

"When we arrested you, we noticed an anomaly in your nervous system, so we had it checked out." He explained.

Peter looked at him confused. "I'm not Terran?"

"You are half Terran." Nova Prime said, answering his question. "Your mother was of Earth. Your father, well, he's something very ancient we've never seen before."

"That could be why you were able to hold the stone for as long as you did." Gamora said to Peter.

Azaria grinned at him. "That is awesome. Your dad must have been crazy powerful."

Just as she finished saying this, Drax and Rocket walk into the room, Rocket looking a little more happy now holding a small pot with a stick that would eventually grow to be Groot. Azaria and he shared a smile from across the room as Nova Prime spoke up again.

"Your friends have arrived. On behalf of the Nova Corps, we'd like to express our profound gratitude for your help in saving Xandar. If you would follow Denarian Dey, he has something to show you."

Peter nods to her. "Thank you, Nova Prime." Gamora and Azaria say thank you as well and they proceed to follow Dey to what they were to receive.

As they walk Azaria walks next to Gamora and Drax as Gamora talks to him.

"Your wife and child shall rest well knowing that you have avenged them."

Drax smiles at her and continues to walk. "Yes. Of course, Ronan was only a puppet. It's really Thanos I need to kill."

Gamora gaped at him as he walked ahead of them and Azaria looked at him in disbelief.

"There is literally nothing that will make him satisfied." She mutters and for the first time in which she was sure she would ever hear, Gamora gave her a small laugh.

Azaria spun her head at her in surprise and she laughed a little more, walking ahead as well.

'_Man, today is just full of surprises.'_ She thought as she smiled.

* * *

When they all stepped outside, their eyes widened in surprise and Peter's face lit up like a little kid receiving his birthday present.

"We tried to keep it as close to the original as possible. We salvaged as much as we could." Dey said looking proud of the work.

"Wow. I…" Peter forced out, completely speechless.

"Oh, thank God. That means the ship is clean." Azaria said, sighing a breath of relief and Rocket burst out laughing. Peter sent her a glare but smiled when he looked back at Dey.

"Thank you."

"I have a family who are alive because of you. Your criminal records have also been expunged. However, I have to warn you against breaking any laws in the future."

At the sound of their records being clean, Rocket looked up at Dey.

"Question. What if I see something that I want to take, and it belongs to someone else?"

Dey looked at him, slightly amused. "Well you will be arrested."

"But what if I want it more than the person who has it?"

"Still illegal."

Rocket shook his head. "That doesn't follow. No, I want it more, sir. Do you understand?"

Azaria begins to laugh as she leads Rocket away, Gamora following behind her, chuckling as well.

"What are you laughing at? Why? I can't have a discussion with this gentleman?"

"Well, you can, but just don't ask questions you know the answers to." Azaria says laughing

Rocket smiles at her as they board the Milano and they walk to sit next to each other.

"I was just wondering. You never know, there may have been an exception for us. I mean, we did just save the galaxy." He says.

Azaria just shakes her head as she laughs quietly.

As Peter sat down in the pilot's seat, Rocket looked down at the pot in his hands. Azaria smiled along with him when they see the small stick finally move and Groot yawned, stretching.

Peter turned to the group. " So, what should we do next? Something good? Something bad? A bit of both?" he asked them, a small smile on his lips as music played in the back ground.

Gamora smiled at him and leaned over. "We'll follow your lead, Star-lord."

Peter grinned at her for saying his 'outlaw' name and started the ship. "Bit of both!"

The Milano lifted off and Azaria smiled to herself. She hadn't felt this happy in years and she wouldn't trade it for anything.

* * *

**All done! Hope you guys liked it. I think the ending was a little cheesy but I like so yeah…. ;) anyway, I just want to say thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed, and reviewed on this fanfiction. It means so much to me. And special thanks to Tigerboy101, XxWolfMan95xX, PGSM Forever233, and raphlav18 for helping me make the story as best as it can be and for keeping me writing with their reviews and reminders to update. You guys are awesome! :D And to anyone wanting to read more about Azaria and Rocket, don't worry I do have some ideas for one-shots and sequels so keep an eye out for em! Other than that, thanks so much again to everyone and don't forget to review! See you all next time. **


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